Temptation of Aromatic Grass
by Endogetsu
Summary: What if, instead of the Kyuubi being sealed in Naruto, Macha from .Hack was instead? His life would be different that's for sure... NaruHina. Endrance-like!Naruto.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Temptation of Aromatic Grass chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Naruto or .Hack for if I did I would be quite wealthy.

Prologue

Fire. Everything was burning. His goddamn home was burning thanks to that damn monster fox. Internally cursing himself, he hated what he was about to subject his son to. Looking at the bundle, he couldn't help but marvel at how much the little guy looked like his beautiful mother, Kushina, tuft of red hair but with his startling blue eyes. Sighing, he took his son and prepared for the night in which he would knowingly condemn his little boy to scorn and hatred.

Around the village, various shinobi of many ranks ranging from genin, chuunin, jounin, and ANBU were busy evacuating the village and trying to combat the demon fox. All seemed lost until one chuunin brought the news that everyone was waiting to hear.

"Its Yondaime-sama! The Yondaime is here!" He cried.

Hearing his cry, many turned to see the blonde haired man racing on the back of a giant toad towards the great fox.

"Dammit! Hope this works! Fuinjutsu: Shiki Fujin!" The Yondaime yelled.

It was with these words that the cold feeling of death seeped in the night air, corrupting the forests and crushing stones. The Shinigami, in all his glory had been summoned to the mortal realm.

"Human mortal…Why has thou called me forth from the abyss of death?" The Shinigami questioned in a deep baritone voice. Regaining the feeling in his limbs, Yondaime spoke.

"Please, oh great God of death, I have summoned you to request a sealing of this great beast into my child". He gestured to the Kyuubi and then to the boy in question. The Shinigami pondered this before coming to a conclusion.

"Very well…but does thou know the price thy must pay for a sacrifice such as this?" The Death God spoke.

The Yondaime only nodded his head with his eyes looking at the sleeping boy in his arms. Without another word, The Shinigami performed the sealing as promised, thus ending the Yondaime's life. Before his vision faded completely, he took notice of a strange cat creature floating in the trees looking at his child. With a whispered 'please help him' the Yondaime's eyes lost their light.

The still summoned Shinigami looked at the cat creature before speaking.

"So…Macha The Temptress…it would seem that you are now responsible for this child. Does thou understand?" The Shinigami questioned.

The cat wordlessly nodded, picking up the bundle, gaining a squeal from its inhabitant who observed the cat curiously. In the babies vision, The cat was dressed in a wizard style getup and a wizards hat (for details, see Macha (cat) from .hack SIGN). The cat itself was made up of two different colours, white for the left side of its body and purple on the right. Also a purple star was visible around its left eye, which along with its right eye was a dark red. Finally, a white tail is seen swishing in front of the child's face, tickling him and causing him to laugh. Smiling softly, the cat known as Macha looked up at The Shinigami.

"I must confess, the technique that was used on the Kyuubi actually destroyed the beast but its foul energy remains in the infant. Thou must guide the child and aid him through the troubled times ahead. Does thou understand?"

Macha nodded wordlessly again before quietly returning the now sleeping child to where she found him, in order to avoid suspicion. Thinking quickly, she seemingly melted and fused with the baby, changing the whisker marks from three on each cheek, to a faded two on each.

A few moments later, the retired Sandaime arrived and quickly secured the sleeping child before heading to his home. This begins the difficult, yet strange life that young Uzumaki Naruto would face.

The Sandaime had returned to reclaim his position as hokage once more after announcing the death of the Yondaime, Minato Namikaze. After announcing the Kyuubi's sealing into an infant, the crowd began to spew in outrage, demanding the child be killed. This forced Sarutobi to seriously doubt what the Yondaime saw in these fools. Of course, he understood that the people needed a scapegoat but he would never condemn anyone to that fate. He sighed, looking down at the sleeping child, wondering what sort of life the boy would live.

Naruto's age: 5

Naruto happily skipped down the road to go to Ichiraku Ramen. The little orphan often went there, as not many other establishments would sell to him. No, they would either just glare at him till he left or yell at him. He stopped running and stood completely still with his red bangs obscuring his face from view. He never understood why he couldn't play with the other children or why they called him hurtful names like 'demon' or 'murderer'. It always stung him and he began to develop a strong hate and anger towards the villagers.

A subtle change occurred in him over the next couple of weeks. His hair had started to grow down to his shoulders and his eyes turned a darker shade of the once light blue orbs. Walking solemnly down the street, he kicked a can and sighed sadly.

Meanwhile Deep inside Naruto's seal…

Macha was making some noticeable changes to her host's mindscape and overall personality. Observing it overall, she smiled. The whole mindscape was a field with a mixture of red and white roses. Amongst the flowers, stood a large cherry blossom tree in the middle. Suddenly frowning, she turned and looked at a dead patch of flowers where an evil looking red energy was gathering and attempting to spread. Thinking this could pose a danger to her host, she sent two Guardians (Gold dumbbell creatures from .Hack SIGN) to regulate and convert the energy into a more pleasant substance. Smiling happily, she returned to fixing up the host's personality, slowly changing it to mature more quickly.

She suddenly had an epiphany. She couldn't defend her host without a physical body as she had used up a large amount of energy, which transferred to the host's chakra pathways, changing the host's chakra colour from a light blue to a light purple. Using a minimal amount form the host's body, she created a much smaller body to accommodate as a companion for Naruto. Her body shrunk to the size of a small white cat with purple tipped rabbit ears. The little cat's eyes opened up to reveal two pure red orbs. Smiling to herself, Macha escaped the mindscape and into the world the host resided in.

Naruto sat under a large cherry blossom tree and he didn't know why. He had a feeling something good would happen if he went to the tree so he waited…

"Meow!"

Naruto looked on in confusion as a strange looking white cat with long ears and red eyes bounded up to him and nuzzled his cheek. Laughing a melodious laugh he never knew he could produce, he scratched the little cats chin, eliciting a purr.

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked softly. The cat meowed in response and a name made its way from his lips.

"Mia…your name will be Mia…My only friend…" He finished softly.

The cat meowed in happiness and thus hung onto his shoulder as Naruto made his way back to the orphanage before he would get yelled at.

3 Years later… Naruto's age: 8

Naruto was a…strange child in the eyes of the new orphanage caretaker. He never interacted with anyone much except if he was in a talkative mood. Most of the time, she heard him mumbling to himself and that *shudder* Red-eyed white cat with long white ears and purple tips that sat on his right shoulder. She had come to associate it with the many strange oddities with him as it just appeared with him one day. Yes, Rin decided, Uzumaki Naruto was one of the strangest boys she had ever seen. It was a shame that he ended up that way, what with those ignorant villagers ignoring him, forcing him to isolate himself and confide in non-human friends. Even Sandaime-sama admitted that the boy was too isolated for his own good.

She felt saddened that she couldn't do more for her former sensei's son but she had a job to do and couldn't afford to show favouritism. She sighed and looked over at him sleeping under a large sakura (cherry blossom) tree with that cat. The boy, who was 8 years old, had bright, hazy blue eyes and two faded whisker marks on each cheek. He had long red hair reaching lower back with five white bell attachments at the ends, which was covered by a black beret-looking hat with three purple roses on the left side. His attire consisted of standard civilian clothes, which was a pair of blue sandals, black pants, and a dark purple shirt. She decided that he was a very feminine looking boy and it made her laugh when she caught other boys asking him out until they realised he was a guy, then threw up in the nearby trashcans. She could see this irked him by the small frown he sported during these types of confrontations. It also amused her when he was constantly swamped by females of all ages commenting on his looks. This was one of the few moments when he seemed happy, when women found him attractive…

At this thought, she clenched her fists and grinded her teeth. There was NO WAY in hell she would let him end up a pervert so she helped by giving him lessons on women and how to avoid becoming a pervert. Confusion was on his face at the time, well it seemed like it because his face always held that lost, dream-like look. Especially around the cat, Rin noticed. Sighing, she returned to the kitchen to make dinner for the children.

As we leave Rin, we focus on the young protagonist in question. The androgynous red haired boy opened his hazy blue eyes, stretched his arms, and then stroked the cat next to him in an affectionate manner. This caused the cat to run up his arm and land on his right shoulder.

"Good morning, Mia…" his dream-like voice echoed around the area. "It is yet another beautiful day…" The cat meowed in response and nuzzled his cheek.

Smiling softly, Naruto raised his left hand and tickled the cat's chin, which earned a purr. Naruto then moved gracefully back to the interior of the orphanage. He often wondered why he had to live here but never pondered further as he realised that Mia was all he needed or wanted. He didn't, however shun contact with humanity as he had come to care for the few whom treated him nicely.

The old man in red and white who came to visit him was rather nice to him, in ways similar to Rin. He always read books to him and played tag with him and Mia. He had been added to the list of his precious people alongside Rin, Ayame, and Teuchi. He didn't mind the ramen that they served as Mia often tried to drag him there. He laughed at the memory of Mia trying to drink the broth only to have the bowl fall on top of her. That, and it seemed that Ayame had become a big sister figure to him and Teuchi became a surrogate father as they never glared at him and were always nice to him. His smile turned into a look of indifference as he recalled those filthy ugly dolls called 'villagers' looking at him in disgust. He figured that they were just jealous that he had a companion to be with him forever and hated him for it. That was fine for him, as he didn't want such filth to ever occupy any region of his heart.

After reaching his room, Naruto decided to lie on the bed, holding a piece of Aromatic grass (or otherwise known as Foxtail grass according to the .Hack wikia) in his hand. Looking at it for a while, he placed it next to the sleeping Mia, and fell asleep, drifting into the world of dreams.

5 years later, Naruto's age: 13

Naruto awoke from his slumber, brushed a stray red hair from his vision, and looked around his apartment. It was surprisingly clean for a teenage male's home. It had a reasonably sized bed, a few pots filled with aromatic grass, Small TV, and a black leather sofa and armchair. He also had a nicely sized kitchen, which showed an interest in the art of cooking. After getting up and scratching Mia behind her ears, causing her to yawn loudly before falling back to sleep. Chuckling, he wandered into the bathroom to have a shower.

Some time later, he exits the bathroom and begins to change into his outfit bought for him from Rin. It consisted of a new beret, only black with white roses. His upper half consisted of a black light armoured shirt with intricate orange lining that had black fur cuffs. His lower half consisted of a pair of black pants with intricate orange lining that matched the shirt. He also had a strange white cape attached to the pants that reached to below his shins. On his feet was a pair of shoes that seemed to match the shirt and pants he wore, as they were also black and had orange lining, with the difference being a white fur attachment on the ankles.

(NOTE: If your having trouble visualising this, look at a picture of Endrance's outfit, but in black with orange lining and no red skirt thing underneath).

After brushing his long red hair and styling it with the black bell attachments Ayame-nee bought him, he placed the beret on his head and went to his kitchen to make a breakfast meal. Coming into the living room while carrying some toast slices, he sat at the table with a now awake Mia who was drinking some milk that Naruto had prepared for her.

Naruto sat in silence, going over the required jutsu he would need to pass his genin exam. This would be his first time seeing as he refused to go to the academy earlier. As he finished his calculation, he exited his apartment with faithful Mia on his shoulder. After wandering the street, he looked on as a group of villagers were trying to remove a piece of graffiti from a large wall.

"Hmph, how disgusting….trying to desecrate such a beautiful vision with filthy cleaning utensils…such ugly dolls…" Naruto complained in his dream-like voice with Mia meowing in agreement. The 'beautiful vision' in particular was a painting of a large sakura tree in full bloom. He never referred to his art as 'pranks' as the villagers 'lovingly' named them. The nerve of those dirty pigs! Was it wrong to make the world a more beautiful place? I mean okay, the 'vandalising' of the Hokage monument by giving them colour may have been a bit TOO excessive but it was all in the name of beauty! If only these fools could understand that…

Reaching the academy, he went inside to find the classroom. Entering the room, he could feel some of the female occupants staring at him with…hearts in their eyes. Of course, he noticed the remaining girls fawning over a black haired boy, who was brooding in the corner. Sasuke, if he remembered the boys name correctly. Shrugging, he went to the back of the classroom and sat next to a girl with dark blue hair, lavender eyes and a large beige coat. The girl turned an interesting shade of red and started to behave shyly as he sat next to her.

"Good morning, my dear hime" Naruto said while stroking a lock of her hair. "I hope that you are well today…"

The girl in question, Hinata, promptly lit up like a Christmas light at being called hime (also the touch), and ended up receding more into herself.

"I-I'm alright N-Naruto-kun" She managed to stutter out. Naruto looked at her sadly and sighed softly and tilted his head backwards slightly.

"Oh my dear hime, why must you wither yourself away like a dead flower?" He spoke and then cupped her cheek. "You have the potential to become beautiful, so please don't crumble…"

Said girl turned an extreme shade of red that Naruto turned slightly fearful for her health. Luckily she calmed down as the teacher, Iruka Umino, came in to announce what the test will be.

"Alright class, this is it. The big one" He said. "I hope that you have all prepared yourself accordingly, for this will test your written skills and your use of academy techniques."

Naruto tuned out the rest of the mans lecture in favour of looking at the sword attached to his hip. It had been a delightful gift to him from Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage. It was a rather elegant looking rapier that was completely pitch black. The handle had a cover that covered his hand and had a swirl pattern. After finishing examining his sword, he stroked Mia under the neck in the area she was fond off, receiving a satisfied purr in response. Smiling dreamily, his attention was drawn back to Iruka, who finally started calling names.

The written test wasn't that difficult but then again Naruto did not find any beauty in completing such a dull, boring task. Of course, he didn't do badly, he just written to get at least 70% in the test. After the test was over, Iruka announced that the jutsu test would be done alphabetically and that, in conjunction with the academy jutsu, extra credit would be given for those who used a non-academy jutsu as a fourth technique.

"Aburame, Shino!" He called. A rather tall boy, roughly the same size as Naruto, with a huge coat and sunglasses got up silently and made his way to the door. At this, Naruto decided to take a small nap, knowing his name was the second to last on the list.

Waking up, he noticed that only him, Ino, and the broody Uchiha boy were left. A few moments later in silence, another teacher came in. This one had long-ish silver hair hidden under a bandanna.

"Uchiha, Sasuke!" He called. The boy got up and made his way to the test area. He realised he was next when Iruka-sensei called his name.

"Alright Naruto, you have to do the three standard academy jutsus. These are: the henge, the kawarimi, and finally the bunshin. Please begin when you are ready." Iruka said with a smile. He often found Naruto's behaviour quirks amusing as it irritated a lot of the boys in class who thought he was a girl. He remembered when Kiba tried asking him out because he thought he was a 'pretty lady'. This resulted in a mental scar for Kiba who promptly realised he was a guy and got him laughed at by his sister, Hana. The dog boy avoided Naruto since.

"Henge!" Naruto called in his dream-like voice. In his place stood…a replica of a red haired woman with violet eyes in light armour. After dispelling the jutsu, he found Iruka looking at him in a questioning manner.

"She…was my mother…so beautiful…" He said in a lost voice. This prompted Mia to nuzzle his cheek to get him back down to Earth. Iruka winced, for he too knew the pain of losing a loved one.

"R-right. Please move onto the next jutsu for me, Naruto" His voice snapped Naruto out of his daze.

"Kawarimi…" And in his place was the flowerpot on the windowsill.

"Good job, Naruto. Now, for the final jutsu, the bunshin. I have heard from Hokage-sama that you have a disability regarding this particular technique and he said to use the move he taught you."

Nodding, Naruto made a hand seal and called out "Kage bunshin!" and with it, three solid clones appeared next to him. Iruka had moved to examine the clones, and thus told him to perform a non-academy jutsu since the kage-bunshin was only a replacement for the regular bunshin. Naruto nodded slowly before closing his eyes and pressing his hands together in a hand seal.

"**Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai** (Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: First Stage)…" He whispered.

The effect was instant. A mixture of glowing red and white flower petals appeared from out of nowhere and circled the wooden test dummy, completely concealing it from view and raised slowly off the ground. After a few seconds, Naruto slowly raised his left had in front of him, Mia anticipating what was going to happen. He clicked his fingers and the literal flower coffin thrust from mid air, straight into the ground at an alarming speed. When the flowers cleared from view, an extremely damaged test dummy with various indents and cut marks became visible.

Iruka was stunned at the sheer force of such a technique. His face resembled a gaping fish until he realised what he was now supposed to do and composed himself, then smiled at the redhead.

"Congratulations Naruto, You pass. Here is your new hitai-ate. Team listings is tomorrow". Here, Iruka handed him a headband with a metal plate, symbolising the Konoha sign. Picking up the headband, he thanked Iruka and prepared to go home to play with Mia.

Outside, he took notice of the parents of children who passed the test. Looking at them with indifference, he moved away to avoid them and hurry home. He was unaware of the pair of lavender orbs watching him leave.

"Naruto-kun…" She sighed sadly, thinking he had failed.

Some time later, we find Naruto at home cooking dinner with Mia playing in the living room. Humming a tune, called Tasogare no Umi, he thus made his way into the living room to eat his meal. After finishing his rather delicious dinner, he noticed Mia was already asleep. Picking her up carefully, he moved to his bedroom and placed her in the little handmade basket he made for her. Smiling softly, he turned and looked at the headband he was given. Looking at it long and hard, he walked over to the sideboard next to his bed and pulled out a small key concealed in a fruit bowl. After collecting the key, he walked to his closet and pulled out hidden package from behind his spare outfits. Undoing the lock to the package, he opened it to reveal a rather expensive looking violin and a bow to play it with. The violin was rather old, as it had been a gift from Rin on his 9th birthday and she taught him how to play. He slowly picked up from where Rin left him and turned himself into a fairly competent violinist. Picking up the violin and bow, he opened the hatch on the ceiling that led to a small canopy on his roof. Sitting on the canopy, he brought the chin rest of the violin to his chin and brought the bow to the strings. Sighing peacefully, he looked out to the beautiful scenery of the Fire Country forests. He slowly began to play a melody. As he continued playing, Mia ran up the open hatch of the roof and jumped on Naruto's shoulder and started meowing softly to the song. Sighing in content, Naruto keeps playing. (NOTE: The song he is playing is Nightfall, from Naruto Shippuden OST).

Sarutobi had been having a good few years as returning hokage. Of course, he got back into the routine and tackled the dreaded paperwork. Oh how he loathed that unbeatable enemy who always kept respawning.

Sighing, he turned and looked at the pictures on the wall. From left to right was a picture of each hokage that Konoha had. The first was the Shodaime, whose name was Hashirama Senju and also the co-founder of Konoha alongside Uchiha Madara and famous for the Mokuton bloodline. Next was the Nidaime, named Tobirama Senju, brother to the Shodaime and a master of water techniques. Next was a picture of himself, albeit younger. Often called "Shinobi no Kami", he had mastered every jutsu inside Fire Country. Moving on he twitched at the picture of the last one, the Yondaime, Minato Namikaze. The boy was a prodigy who quickly rose through the ranks and was loved by many. It was a tragedy, when he lost his life sealing the Kyuubi no Yoko inside his own son, Naruto.

Sarutobi often felt guilty when it came to that boy, the poor boy who had isolated himself from people simply because they couldn't see past what he was. Of course, Sarutobi understood their mindsets, for the boy was an obvious reminder of what occurred that terrible day. His faded whisker marks (though he couldn't figure out why they had faded) had always served a constant reminder of the fox and thus they took out their anger and sorrow on him. Of course, while there were no attempts of physical attacks, he made sure of that, it still ached seeing that poor lonely boy isolated from children his own age and sitting by himself stroking that strange white cat.

That was another thing, where did it come from anyway? He was sure that they never had cats as exotic as that one on sale in shops in Konoha. When he asked, the boy just said that 'Mia found me…' and thus he proceeded to drop the issue. However, as the boy grew older, he noticed that he was always with that cat, constantly talking to it and playing with it. It had seemingly become the point of obsession for young Naruto, bordering on pure fanaticism. It was fortunate, that he was able to make friends in the academy, such as the shy Hyuuga heiress, Hinata and the Yamanaka girl, Ino, who appreciated beauty as much as Naruto did.

After looking outside his window, he cursed the Yondaime for leaving him with so much work. Smiling he lit his pipe and proceeded to stare at his great nation, while listening to the sound of a violin being carried throughout the village.

"The new leaves shall soon be born on the great tree, but the question remains…will they survive and thrive, or wither and die…"

Thus the night dragged on, and the violin ceased playing.

**END OF CHAPTER**

Haha! Didn't actually plan on writing this but I haven't seen many Naruto/. Hack fics on the site and decided to remedy. There will be no actual characters appearing from .Hack itself aside from the Mia from .Hack/G.U. You may have noticed that the Naruto in this fic is based off Endrance. I will say this once. There will be NO YAOI in this story, as I hate it. I am going to make the pairing NaruHina. Also, he resembles his mother, Kushina rather than his father Minato.

**Oh yeah! I almost forgot! Macha's Avatar Form (.Hack/G.U.) might make an appearance but that most likely won't happen until much later, in the chuunin exams. **

**Thanks For Reading, Guys and Girls!**

**Chapter 2 will be up soon, well as soon as I write it anyway…**

**Naruto's stats**: After looking at Narutopedia, I have decided to give an estimate on what his stats would be at the moment. This will be done here and after the timeskip that runs into Shippuden and to ensure people that he isn't perfect in everything. The stats will be measured on a scale of 1 to 5.

Ninjutsu: 3

Taijutsu: 2.5

Genjutsu: 3

Intelligence: 2.5

Strength: 2.5

Speed: 4

Stamina: 4

Hand seals: 2

Total: 23.5

Evaluation: A primary speed fighter, Naruto will rely on fast moves that are rather flashy and quick hitters. His Taijutsu isn't the best because he just goes into a fight with a 'get in flashy, get out flashy' mentality and uses a rapier sword, however he does have an okay Taijutsu form. Because he puts so much effort into being a speed fighter, he sacrificed a majority of his physical strength in exchange for high speed and stamina. He has built himself into a pure speed master and thus won't be an all-powerful brute. His Genjutsu is average, consisting of luring and mind altering techniques. Because Shinobi usually favour one style out of Nin, Tai, or Genjutsu, Naruto's forte will be in Ninjutsu he considers 'beautiful'.

**Endo's Jutsu Corner**: I will do this little segment at the end of each chapter each time an original jutsu (made by me) is used. Note: the jutsu listed will only be the ones used during specific chapters (e.g. jutsu used in chapter one won't appear in the corner in chapter). Also, other characters will use original jutsus later but for now its Naruto only:

**Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai** (_Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: First Stage_) – This is a Ninjutsu technique used by Naruto. It creates small blades disguised as flower petals and proceeds to capture the enemy in a coffin-like container. The enemy is systematically cut from every angle and put into an unconscious state. A-rank Ninjutsu

**Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Niban Dankai** (_Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: Second Stage_) – Unamed in the fic and an accompaniment to the Amatsu Kusabana Maisou. By clicking his fingers, the flower coffin will proceed to drag Naruto's enemy down into the ground at a fast speed, causing large body damage. A-rank Ninjutsu.


	2. Chapter 2: Genin Test and Crank

**Chapter 2: Genin Test and C-rank missions.**

**Well, here's another chapter, hope to get a few more reviewers.**

RoyalTwinFang**: I had this idea of using an Endrance-like Naruto for a while. However your comment about Haseo and Skeith gave me an idea I might use in another fic. Please look out for it in the future when I have time to write it.**

**Now, on with the show!…or fic.**

Naruto awoke from his slumber, opening his eyes slowly. Slowly getting up, he dragged himself into the bathroom to get ready. While he was getting ready, Mia had woken up and stretched her legs and yawned loudly. She hopped into the kitchen to wait for Naruto to give her milk.

A few seconds later, Naruto emerged clad in his usual outfit (see chapter 1 for details). He gave Mia her morning milk and made himself a ham sandwich. After finishing breakfast, he looked up towards his calendar. Today was the day that teams would be selected, it seemed. Sighing, Naruto prepared to get ready to leave for the academy. Before leaving, with Mia on his shoulder, he grabbed the hitai-ate from his bedside and tied it around his waist as a belt. Deciding to get there faster he roof- hopped across buildings at a fast speed, which had Mia slightly clinging to his shoulder to keep balance. Arriving at the building, he silently wondered who would be his team-mates, before entering with a shrug.

Entering the classroom, he took notice of those who had passed. A few nondescript civilian children were present as well as the children of prominent clans. These clan children included Aburame Shino, Uchiha Sasuke, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Taking a seat next to the surprised, which turned to happy, Hinata, he began to talk quietly with her while he waited for Iruka-sensei to arrive to announce the teams.

A few moments of lateness later, a tired looking Iruka walked into the room with a few bandages on his face. Gasps of students and inquiries of concern were made to the scarred teacher but he managed to give a good description after clearing his throat to get their attention.

"I'd like to say that this will be my last time teaching you as you will all hopefully get into a team. Those who don't will have to repeat the academy for another year" cue moans of outrage from the students and a big head jutsu yell form Iruka. "Now, my injuries were the result of my carelessness because a _traitor_ to the village stole an important document and I was tasked to bring him back for punishment. As you can see, I didn't escape unharmed". Many noticed the way Iruka spat the word traitor out like it was poison. Iruka paused to let the message sink in before levelling an unnerving steel gaze at everyone in the room.

"These are the types of situations that shinobi face in everyday life. If any of you feel uncomfortable with this, then this lifestyle was not made for you." At this, a large majority of the civilian students got up and left.

"Now that they have gone, it seems that you remaining graduates know what is expected of you. I expect you to follow your sensei's orders on the field and off it, for you have accepted your duty to the village and will abide by it for we will not tolerate insubordination of any kind". He finished.

Naruto drifted his attention away to stroking Mia as the first teams and sensei's were announced. It was only until the end of Team Six did he pay attention.

" –Your sensei is Shiranui Genma. Team Seven will be consisted of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura. Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Team Eight will be consisted of Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, and Hyuuga Hinata. Your sensei is Yuuhi Kurenai. Since Team Nine is still currently in circulation I shall announce the final team. Team Ten will consist of Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yamanaka Ino. Your sensei is Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka wrapped up the scroll and finished up. "Those of you who have not made it to a team, try again next time". With that he looked at them once more before leaving the room, leaving the students waiting for their respective sensei.

A short while later, the first six teams had left with their new sensei's. Now, only Teams 7, 8, and 10 were remaining. Sighing softly, he observed his team-mates reaction to who they were paired with. The pink haired girl on his team, Sakura if he remembered from the calling, looked ecstatic while the other two girls on the other teams looked at her in anger, although one hid it behind a shy mask. The broody Uchiha looked like he didn't want a team judging by his shifting posture in regards to Sakura hounding him. While this was happening, two adults came in. One smoking a cigarette and a woman with red eyes. They observed the teams.

Team Seven looked like it could use the most work. This group of misfits would be very unfit to work as a team with each other. Hell, One of them was ignoring his team-mates in favour of stroking a…cat?

Team Eight seemed like they would get along although there was a slight disappointment detected from the female member as she looked longingly at the vacant looking boy with long red hair, unusual outfit and a cat on his shoulder from Team 7(Naruto).

Team Ten looked like they could have gotten along, if it wasn't for Ino glaring at Sakura like she was a fly on a windshield. The other two looked at each other and smiled. At least their friend was on the same team.

Suddenly Ino seemed to shift her gaze to look at Naruto and moved to greet him with a smile. The two suddenly got into an animated conversation about how to make the world more 'beautiful'. It was at that moment that Kiba chose to rudely butt in the conversation.

"Man, what's up with you Naruto? You act so girly that I might even think you ARE one! Talking about all this 'beautiful' crap this, and 'beautiful' shit that…che!" He smirked until he felt two large killing intents, and a smaller one, being aimed at him from Naruto, Ino and Hinata.

"Insolent fool…as if you could understand what it is we do to make the world a better place…People like you sicken me…" Naruto said with a mild glare of irritance but was nothing compared to Ino's outburst.

"Yeah Kiba-_dobe_! Just because you are an uncouth animal doesn't mean you have a right to criticise other peoples views!" Ino yelled stressing the dobe, then looking at him as if he was a turd stuck under her shoe.

Hinata just mildly glared at the dog-boy for insulting Naruto but wasn't noticed by anyone…

Kiba just seemed to shrink into the size of a small chibi with each passing outburst while Akamaru ran and hid down Hinata's jacket, prompting a huge blush because she thought Naruto saw her…

After setting poor Kiba straight, the two enthusiasts of all things beautiful began conversing again while Hinata looked on with jealousy at Ino. After a while, Kiba got bored and went to pick a brawl with the Uchiha. This turned out to be a very painful idea, for when Kiba stood on the desk glaring into the eyes of Sasuke, who glared back fiercely, the most embarrassing moment of their lives would occur very soon.

This glare-a-thon brought the attention of the S.T.F.U. (Sasuke's True Fangirls United) association. They all began glaring at Kiba, who was still glaring at Sasuke. The literal world-breaker for the S.T.F.U. occurred when Shikamaru woke up from his nap, leaned back, and bumped Kiba forward. With Kiba ending up kissing Sasuke.

A few seconds of silence…

"KIBA YOU BASTARD!" yelled Sasuke with a sickly green colour on his face, choking and gagging.

"S-Shut up, Sasuke-bitch! It wasn't my fault!" Kiba tried to defend himself, also with a green face.

"Kiiiiiiiiiiibaaaaaaaa!" the literal demon voice from the bowels of hell echoed the room. Frightened, Kiba slowly turned around to be confronted by a demonic group of fan-girls led by Sakura, who cracked her knuckles.

Understandably terrified, Kiba ran out the room and was followed by the hordes of fan-girls looking to butcher him for stealing Sasuke's lips from them. Back in the classroom, Sasuke shuddered slightly but covered it up with a mask of indifference.

Naruto observed this all with a look of barely concealed mirth, before turning to Hinata and gently took her hand in his, causing an intense blush and shy smile.

"I am so sorry, my dear hime, but it would seem that destiny has conspired against us and forced us apart for some time now…" He said softly. "But do not worry, for I will return to be by your side once more, my beautiful hime" He finished sighing slightly. Releasing her hand, he watched her and her team-mates leave the room, while her sensei looked at the red faced girl with a small knowing smile.

Waiting. That's all that could be said. After Team Ten had gone off with a younger looking version of the Sandaime, Team Seven was left in silence…well, aside from Sakura trying to animatedly hit on Sasuke. This happened for two hours and two members of the team were becoming increasingly annoyed and the other was stroking a cat.

After what seemed like a total of three hours, in walked a man with silver hair wearing a facemask and had his hitae-ate covering his left eye. He was then smacked in the face by a fruitcake. Staring for a few minutes at the little genin-to-be, he said:

"I hate you…you all suck…Especially you, Pinky" He said nonchalantly, pointing at Sakura when he finished. "…Meet me on the roof".

On the roof, the three genins sat next to each other with Kakashi observing them from across. After a few seconds, his voice ran out.

"Okay…now that we're all here lets begin". He pulled out a small orange book and flipped it open and started reading.

"U-um Sensei? What are we supposed to do?" Sakura asked timidly.

"Hmm…well, I suppose that you should tell me your names, likes, dislikes, dreams…crap like that" He said and two out of three genins sweatdropped.

"C-can you go first sensei" Sakura asked warily. Kakashi sighed and put his book away.

"Alright…My name is Hatake Kakashi. Um…My likes are not important…Neither are my dislikes and my dream is a secret" He finished up with a perverted giggle.

"W-well! My name is Haruno Sakura, My likes are..." She looked at Sasuke, who started to sweat a little. She squealed loudly. "My dislikes are Ino-pig and loudmouths like Kiba!" She pondered her dream before lecherously leering at Sasuke "My dream is…ehehehehehe…."

'Fangirl' groaned Kakashi in his head.

Sasuke was openingly shivering now, despite his attempts at keeping up a cool façade, that comment and that gaze unnerved him greatly. Regaining a firm hold of himself, he started his intro.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There aren't a lot of things I like but there are a lot of things I dislike." Here Sakura frowned sadly. "My dream is not a dream, but an ambition. I seek to kill a certain man…" He finished off mysteriously. Sakura looked at him in adoration while Naruto looked at him with indifference.

'Great…an avenger with a duck-ass hairstyle…can this day get any worse' Kakashi gestured to the last, silent member of Team 7.

The boy with the long red hair snapped out of his trance like state to begin his introduction.

"My name…is Uzumaki Naruto" He spoke in a dream-like voice. "My likes include…Mia, Women, and beautiful things". He paused. "My dislikes include perverts, those 'ugly dolls', and ugliness in general". He closed his eyes. "My dream…is to live up to my Mother's legacy." He finished. The others stared at him for a little while.

'And now I've got…well, I don't even know what to call this guy…a narcissist?' Kakashi thought to himself.

"Okay, my chibi-genin squad, there is still one more qualification you have to pass to be on my team" He announced with an eyesmile. Sakura yelled out in protest, Sasuke looked ticked off, and Naruto stared in slight confusion.

"Oh yeah! And don't eat any breakfast tomorrow". With that Kakashi waved goodbye leaving the genin alone. A few seconds later, Naruto got up and went home with Mia. This made Sakura pester Sasuke for dates, which slowly grated at his walls of sanity in his mind.

The next day…

Naruto sat quietly with Mia on his shoulder as he watched the amusing display of Sakura bothering Sasuke. After a few hours, Kakashi arrived on the field and announced the test.

"Alright kiddies, this is the test day, hope you studied hard!" He said with an eyesmile. "It will be your job to get these two little bells from me. Get them and you pass. Ready? GO!" He called and Sakura and Sasuke bounded into the trees while Naruto stood in the same spot, stroking Mia.

"Well, you're certainly a strange one" Kakashi remarked with a deadpan.

The androgynous boy sighed slightly and looked up at the sky.

"I hope that…you can keep up with me…" The boy's whisper carried in the wind. As soon as he said that, he started forming handseals quickly, causing Kakashi to tense. He slowed down near the end before whispering.

"**Suiton: Houyou no Kisaki** (Water Release: Embrace of the Empress)…"

What resulted from this was a small puddle of water forming in between Naruto and Kakashi. From this puddle, the form of a beautiful blue haired woman rose out and smiled at Kakashi. Kakashi seemingly fixated with the beautiful creature in front did not remember that it was a jutsu until the woman, who had started to hug him from behind smirked maliciously. Eye widening, he quickly used a kawarimi and a log ended up in the arms of the woman. The woman pouted before she exploded with such a force that the replaced log was completely obliterated. Naruto frowned slightly but Mia calmed him down by nuzzling his cheek.

"Phew! What a move! Didn't think I would get out of that if I didn't get serious!" He said in mock exhilaration. "But, I suppose it's time I checked on the others, see ya Naru-chan!" He called out. Naruto visibly twitched at the butchering of such a suffix to his name. Sighing, he slowly followed after Kakashi.

With Sakura….

'What the hell was that! I know it was some kind of genjutsu but…' Sakura thought after watching Naruto and Kakashi go at it.

"**Hey Sakura**…" A deep voice growled behind. Sakura froze and turned around with wide eyes, coming face to face with a wide-eyed demonic Kakashi. Holding up his hand he whispered in her ear.

"**Genjutsu**…" and with that Kakashi vanished from Sakura's line of sight leaving her in a now darker forest. Sakura suddenly heard a rustling noise and from a nearby bush, came a sight that would forever scar her fangirl mentality.

Sasuke had stumbled out of the bush with a multitude of bleeding wounds and an assortment of different weapons sticking out of his body. With a bloody groan he called out weakly.

"Saku…ra…help….me…" She promptly screamed and fell unconscious.

With Sasuke…

Sasuke blinked. His pink-haired 'team-mate' screamed at him and fell unconscious. Checking the surrounding area, he recognised the trail of a genjutsu and promptly dispelled it.

"So pathetic…can't even tell the difference between illusion and reality…this is why you're so useless…" Sasuke said to the unconscious girl. Sasuke suddenly tensed when he recognised a familiar chakra signature.

"Well then Sasuke, I hope you'll give me a better fight than the others" Kakashi called to him from a distance.

"Hmph! I'm not like those two! I'll defeat you, take those bells, and get enough power to kill _him!_".

Kakashi sighed at the boy's avenger mentality. Deciding the best course of action, he prepared to gauge the boy's strength. Sasuke charged at Kakashi with the Uchiha clan taijutsu style, unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks. These were easy to block for Kakashi as he had faced this style before. Sighing, Kakashi came up with something devilish.

"You know Sasuke, I expected something more from the oh so great 'Last Uchiha'. Seems like all the hype was fed to your over-inflated ego and cut off from your underdeveloped genitalia."

Sasuke gaped for a few seconds before yelling in fury. Going through hand seals, which made Kakashi's visible eye widen.

'Shit!'

"**Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu** (Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique)"

A huge fireball erupted from Sasuke's mouth and sped towards Kakashi. In quick thinking, Kakashi vanished and reappeared behind the unsuspecting Uchiha and…

" **Konoha Taijutsu no Ougi: Sennen Goroshi!** (Leaf village secret technique: One Thousand Years of Death)" he then shoved his index and middle fingers up the Uchiha's ass, causing him to fly in the air screaming and holding his violated rear.

'How…disgusting' thought Naruto, who was watching from nearby.

Sighing, Naruto went back to hunting Kakashi for round two. Thinking, he placed his hands together and said:

"**Issai Kenzan Metsuki**…(All-Seeing Eyes)" Using this, he homed in on Kakashi's chakra signature and moved to confront him.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow when he saw nearly thousands of flower petals falling from the surrounding trees. Feeling a chakra signature approaching he turned to confront his student. He suddenly saw Naruto slowly descend to the ground from the top of a high tree and land a few feet away from him.

"A bit too flashy don't you think Naruto?" Questioned Kakashi with an eyesmile. Said boy just smiled and placed his hands together and formed hand seals. Kakashi, knowing of the boy's bizarre skill list, tensed up slightly.

"**Ame no Ikusen Hanabira**!" (Rain of a Thousand Petals).

The petals that were falling from the trees around them appeared to freeze in mid-air. Suddenly, the tips of the petals all turned in Kakashi's direction and proceeded to break at him at insanely fast speeds. It took a few minutes for him to realise that it was all a genjutsu and promptly channelled chakra to dispel it.

When he broke the illusion, Kakashi heard the sound of an alarm clock going off, causing everyone to look at it in confusion. Sighing, Kakashi moved over to the clock and turned it off before looking at the three genin.

"Well, that's it…you all fail. I honestly expected more from you all" He paused for a moment. "Sasuke, while you're use of the Grand Fireball technique was shocking, you gave into your anger and acted like a child brawler. You also failed to help your team-mate when she was otherwise indisposed of." When he finished, Sasuke gave him a look of rage before schooling it into an indifferent expression.

"And you, Naruto. You surprised me most of all with your rather unusual skill set however, as I said to Sasuke, you also failed to help your team-mates." Naruto nodded slowly in understanding.

"And finally you, Sakura. You failed to demonstrate any form of ability aside from your intellect, which isn't worth much without the power to back it up. You also failed to help out your team-mates in any way due to being rendered unconscious by a genjutsu."

"Therefore, I have come to a decision…that you three should be dropped from the shinobi program." As soon as the words left Kakashi's mouth, Sasuke jumped up and tried to assault the jounin.

In a flash, Sasuke ended up face first in the dirt with Kakashi sitting on his back. Sakura screamed at him to 'GET OFF SASUKE-KUN!'.

"Shut up" Kakashi said seriously and both Sakura and Sasuke stopped. "It doesn't matter whether you are Rookie of the Year or Dead-Last because you can and will easily die on your own with an attitude like that. I have seen many people like you who end up being skewered on the end of a kunai or sword."

"For this reason, you have failed. You failed to look out for each other, and by not doing that you are disgracing the very foundations that Konoha stands for." Kakashi said. He then gestured the three to an old looking monument in a clearing of the forest.

"See this stone? This is a memorial for those who have died in battle. All of my loved ones have had there names engraved here…" Kakashi stated monotonously. "Your actions today could cause more people to end up on this stone in the future as nothing more than a memory."

The four stared in silence at the monument until Kakashi broke through the tension in a happy note.

"Well! Its time to decided who gets punished!" He said sinisterly with an eyesmile, which caused a shiver of panic amongst the genin.

A few seconds later, Sakura was tied to a post with Naruto and Sasuke sitting on either side of her. Looking up, the trio sees Kakashi handing Naruto and Sasuke two packed meals. Looking at him in confusion, he elaborates.

"Seeing as you two actually managed to attack me, you get the meals while Sakura has to watch. Under NO circumstances does she get any."

Kakashi said before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto, after being nudged by Mia, turned to Sakura and outstretched his arm, in an offering of food.

"Na-Naruto-san? What are you doing? Sakura queried. Sasuke looked over as well.

"He is not here, please accept this meal…" He led off.

Sasuke seemed to get what was going on and did the same as Naruto and offered up some of his food.

"He's right, eat up. You won't be able to do anything if you go hungry." Sasuke said.

"Y-you guys…" Sakura started to tear up. Suddenly, the sky blackened and a demonic Kakashi appeared behind them.

"YOOOUUUUU!" He yelled, gaining a scream from Sakura, a flinch from Sasuke, and a blank stare from Naruto and Mia.

"…Pass!" He said with an eyesmile.

…

"EHHHHHHHH!" Sakura yelled in confusion, Sasuke looked like he ate something bitter and Naruto slightly jolted at the sudden noise.

"Yep Yep! You all passed by achieving the true purpose of the test."

"Teamwork…" Naruto said. "We had to work together…"

"Got it in one, Naru-chan!" Kakashi said, causing Naruto to frown at his sensei for the name and Mia to give a laughing meow.

Sarutobi had called the jounin sensei's from Teams 1-10 to hand over evaluations for the genins. Calling up each individual jounin, he asked for the Pass/fail grades.

"Team 1, failed"

"Team 2, failed"

"Team 3, failed, they freakin' sucked balls! (Cue sweatdrops)"

"Team 4, failed"

"Team 5, failed"

"Team 6, failed"

"Team 7, Passed" Many looked at Kakashi in shock as it was his first team that he passed.

"Team 8, Passed" said Kurenai, who was secretly proud of her first team.

"Team 10, Passed old man" said Asuma lazily, taking a drag on his cigarette.

Before the Sandaime could open his mouth, the doors burst open, and a man with a bowl cut and large eyebrows leapt onto his desk.

"YOSH! WHAT IS THIS I HEAR! MY ETERNAL RIVAL HAS FINALLY PASSED HIS FIRST TEAM! THIS IS A CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION! COME KAKASHI! JOIN ME IN A YOUTHFUL MANLY HUG!" screamed the man. Kakashi looked at the man, who had his arms stretched out for a hug, eyesmiled and said.

"Huh? You say somethin' Gai?" He asked innocently.

Gai's world crumbled.

"CURSE YOU KAKASHI, AND YOUR DESPICABLY HIP ATTITUDE! MY EARS CANNOT STAND THIS REFUSAL! I MUST RESTORE MY FIRES OF YOUTH BY RUNNING 100 LAPS AROUND THE VILLAGE! AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT, I WILL JUGGLE 300 ORPHAN CHILDREN WHILE RIDING A UNICYCLE! AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT I WILL-"

"SILENCE!" roared Sarutobi (Hiruzen). He could already feel a migraine coming on.

"So it is settled, Team's 7, 8, and 10 have passed. Please hand in your reports on individual members to the chuunins and you are free to leave." said Sarutobi.

Nodding, the jounins departed without another word. Smiling slightly, the Sandaime turned towards his window and looked out at the Hokage monument.

"Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei, Minato-kun…it would seem that we have an interesting group this year…" He said quietly, while lighting his pipe.

For the next several weeks, Team 7 had to deal with the bane of shinobi everywhere, D-rank missions. On their first mission, they had to pull weeds from some old guys garden, next they had to act as babysitters and finally had to chase the 'demon cat' Tora.

After chasing down the cat, which seemed unusually content when Naruto held her, for the 5th time, Sakura snapped.

"Hokage-sama! These missions are a joke! I thought we'd be doing more exciting stuff! She yelled causing Sasuke to nod his head in reluctant agreement, Naruto to stare at her through half-lidded eyes, Kakashi to sigh heavily, and Iruka to snap.

"SAKURA! SHOW RESPECT TO THE HOKAGE! These are missions that all genin must take so don't think you're all hot shit!" Iruka yelled, causing Sarutobi to cough to stifle a laugh.

"Hmm…actually I happen to have a C-rank for your team if you think they're ready, Kakashi" Sarutobi said, causing Iruka to look on in shock.

"But Hokage-sama! They are only fresh genin! Surely you don't think that-" Iruka was cut off in his rant by Kakashi.

"I'm sorry Iruka-san but you must realise that these children aren't your students anymore, they're my soldiers" Kakashi pointed out, but before Iruka could open his mouth, Team 8 had entered the room.

"Hokage-sama, Team 8 is here to formally request a C-rank mission" said Kurenai.

Kiba went over to Sasuke and started bickering, which caused Sakura to yell at him. Naruto waved at Hinata and Shino, with Hinata waving back and Shino nodding at him.

"Well then, I'll make it a collaboration mission. Teams 7 & 8, your mission will be to escort a bridge builder to Wave Country…He should be entering right about…now" Sarutobi announced.

As if on cue, an old man stumbled into the room with half a bottle of sake in his hand and slurred out his next words.

"So…these are my escorts?" He scoffed. "Look at 'em! An emo, a pinky, a…wait are you a boy or a girl?" He asked Naruto, then looked at team 8. "A scruffy kid, a silent dude, and a shy girl! Doesn't look like much to me!" He finished with a huff.

Kiba growled and grabbed a kunai and was about to rush the man when Kurenai grabbed him by the hood and yanked him back, although Akamaru got a few scratches on the mans legs.

"Sorry 'sir', but you'll have to make do with us for now" said Kakashi in a monotonous voice with concealed sarcasm.

Huffing, the drunk told them he'd meet them at the bridge the next day. As the teams went home, all minds wandered as to how the mission would go (except Naruto's, whose mind was on Mia).

**END OF CHAPTER 2**

**Still enjoy writing this and plan to continue! Anyway, Review please!…now I cant think of anything else to write here…shit….**

**Endo's Jutsu Corner**

**Okay! Heres the list of original jutsu used in this chapter (I expect readers to identify the already existing jutsu). Also note that I will include other characters at a later date.**

**Suiton: Houyou no Kisaki** (Water Release: Embrace of the Empress):

Used by Naruto. It creates a small water puddle, from which a beautiful blue haired woman emerges and tries to seduce the victim. After dazzling the victim long enough, the woman explodes violently. C-rank Ninjutsu.

**Issai Kenzan Metsuki **(All-Seeing Eyes): Used by Naruto. Allows the user to have a clear focus on a target but causes a constant drain on chakra as long as its active. D-rank supplementary.

**Ame no Ikusen Hanabira** (Rain of a Thousand Petals): Used by Naruto. As the name implies, the victim sees a thousand flower petals fall from surrounding trees. These petals will then sharpen to the point that they feel like swords. They will proceed to violently charge towards the victim. C-rank Genjutsu.


	3. Chapter 3: Into Wave and Danger

**Chapter 3: Into Wave and Danger.**

**Another Chapter I had stored on my PC. Again, thank you for reviewing those who have and those who will do in the future! I hop i will be able to keep you entertained!**

It was the day of their first C-rank. This showed excitement in the genin although a few tried to cover it up (namely Naruto and Shino) and trepidation from the others (Hinata and Sakura). Once the sensei's and the bridge builder, Tazuna, arrived they set off for the first time out of Fire Country.

The group plus Tazuna the bridge builder walked through the outer forests of Konoha. The group was interested in what Tazuna had to say about his country of Wave.

"Ne, Kakashi-Sensei. Doesn't Wave have it's own shinobi force?" Sakura asked in curiosity. Kakashi inwardly sighed at the girl who was supposed to be the smartest kunoichi of her generation.

"Wave has no Shinobi forces that I know of due to its poor economic state, thus they can't afford to hire any." He paused and looked at Tazuna, who shifted under his gaze. "Although I am curious as to how a simple bridge builder can afford for two genin teams…must be important, ne?"

Tazuna didn't answer and swigged more of his booze, which resulted in Kiba calling him a booze hound, before he went to bug Sasuke.

Walking into a small clearing, Naruto took notice of a rather large puddle under a tree.

"How odd…" He commented, while Mia meowed. "There does not appear to have been any rain recently…"

His comment made the two jounin and Sasuke tense up and look at the puddle. It came as quite a shock when two black-clad shinobi leapt from the puddle and wrapped Kakashi up in the chains attached to their gauntlets.

"ONE!" "DOWN!" They cried in unison and the chains shredded Kakashi to pieces. Sakura and Hinata screamed and moved to protect the client, along with Kurenai (who didn't scream). Sasuke and Kiba moved to attack in close range while Naruto and Shino stood back as mid-long range support. Sasuke engaged one of them in Taijutsu while Kiba engaged the other.

Sometime during the fight, Kiba got knocked down and the shinobi he was fighting glared at him. Just as Kiba closed his eyes preparing for the worst, and the shinobi raising his arm to kill the boy, a sound of metal piercing flesh tore threw the area.

Naruto stood in front of Kiba with his rapier driven through the shinobi's heart. The shinobi's eyes widened in surprise before he collapsed in a bloody heap on the ground with a gurgled scream. The other shinobi looked from his fight at what had happened and went into a fit of rage.

"Meizu! You little bastard! You killed my little brother! I'll fuckin' tear you limb from fuckin' limb!" the shinobi screamed at Naruto and charged recklessly towards him. In the midst of this, Kiba got up and tackled the unsuspecting shinobi, causing him to fall to the dirt. This resulted in Sasuke sending out a Grand Fireball at the shinobi, causing him to flail slightly before falling unconscious from his injuries.

Soon after Kakashi reappeared in a swirl of leaves, causing Sakura and Kiba to yell at him. After calming them down and explaining that it was a test to see how they could handle the situation, he turned to Tazuna.

"You have some explaining to do. Why do you have missing-nin after you? They couldn't just be here to enjoy the sights so out with it!" Kakashi said to the slightly shaking bridge builder. Tazuna sighed shakily but complied.

"Alright I admit it, I deceived you. But please try to understand, we cant fight Gato, he has too much of a foothold in Wave so we had to hire you without him noticing…of course, this means that I'll have to pay more right?" He finished in a sad tone.

"Gato? You mean that rich business tycoon?" Kurenai asked.

"Gato is nothing more than a fat little toad who is stealing the life from our people." He said with such venom that it slightly shocked the team. "Which is why I'm asking, please help us…" He finished by getting on his hands and knees.

Sighing, Kakashi turned to the genin and addressed them.

"It's your call guys, what's it gonna be?" He asked tiredly. The genin looked a bit stunned before most nodded in assent.

"Looks like it's your lucky day, pal." Kakashi said to the relieved old man.

As the group continued on towards Tazuna's house in Wave, a mist had slowly built its way through the area. Naruto took notice of this and frowned.

"This mist…is very repulsive…" He stated, causing the group to look at him in confusion, causing him to sigh before saying "It is unnatural and feels…disgusting."

Kakashi had thought about what his student said. Unlike most people who knew Naruto, Kakashi could interpret the boy's messages despite his dreamy dazed outlook and wording. So when he felt something off, it usually ended up being bad news. This sadly came true as a whipping wind sound was heard. Narrowing his one eye, which soon widened, he turned back to the team.

"EVERYBODY DUCK!"

With that scream, followed by the immediate action, a huge sword careened through the air and crashed into a tree, just missing the team. A figure soon landed on top of the embedded sword. His lower face was covered in bandages and he had his Kiri Hitai-ate slanted at an angle over his messy black hair. His clothing consisted of a bare torso, light striped pants and cow-coloured wristbands and legwarmers. His sharp black eyes bore into the team as he let out a large amount of killing intent.

"Well well well! So it seems that you were the troublemakers that dealt with the Demon Brothers…Heh, at least they went out with dignity." The man then laughed a cackling laugh. "But I see that you are Sharingan no Kakashi, and you are Konoha's Genjutsu Mistress, Yuuhi Kurenai…"

The two mentioned jounins tensed up, looking at the man with narrowed eyes. Sasuke looked at Kakashi in shock.

"Hey! What does he mean by the Sha-" but before he could finish, Kakashi yelled "Not now, Sasuke!"

Sasuke scowled and focused his attention on the strong looking man before them. Yes, he would be a brilliant test of his skills. Once he defeated this man, then he would be one step closer to killing _him_.

No sooner did he think those words that the man reappeared in front of him and delivered a kick to his face, sending him careening into a tree.

"Sasuke-kun!" His pink haired team-mate yelled.

"Stupid brats, don't take your eyes off the enemy or…" He said and rushed at Tazuna. "You'll fuckin' die!" He yelled and prepared to execute the bridge builder with his cleaver sword. The rapier of Naruto, who stood in front of Tazuna, however, intercepted his strike before it could reach its target. The man looked at him in confusion.

"Hmm? A rapier? Don't see too many shinobi using those…this ought to be interesting!" He yelled in excitement as he and Naruto commenced a sword battle.

Kiba had found Sasuke imbedded in a tree with a trickle of blood escaping the corner of his mouth. Grabbing the injured Uchiha, he made his way towards the rest of his team.

Hinata was terrified. This huge man had come out of nowhere and attacked them! Then he proceeded to one-hit Sasuke and now was engaging in a battle of blades with Naruto-kun! Thinking quickly, she and Sakura held protective stances around the client.

Shino watched impassively as he knew this would happen. His insects had alerted him to the presence of enemy-nin but he wanted to use the experience to gain an insight into the battle strategies of enemy nations and how the other team co-operated. Another thing he noticed was that his insects seemed to be strangely intrigued with Naruto's chakra. Before, they acted wary but soon they started to fly near the boy, although he never noticed. He resolved to keep an eye on Uzumaki, but now he had a battle to fight and he wasn't going to be left out. Thinking, he sent off an infantry swarm of insects to surround the bandaged swordsman from a distance and slowly leech his chakra. This would be all he could offer as a basic support. He watched as Kakashi-sensei joined in the battle and Kurenai-sensei head back to the client and provide assistance to the shaken girls.

Zabuza was enjoying himself. This little genin not only knew how to wield that rapier of his, but he also managed to score a few quick stabs to his arms. What's more, the little brat was too fast that he couldn't even score a hit! This was so much fun! Deciding to see what else the kid could do, he moved a fair distance away, idly noting that Kakashi was approaching. Thinking, he attacked Kakashi first, wanting to have more fun with the genin later. Going through hand seals, he shouted out a jutsu.

"**Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu**!" (Water release: Water Dragon Bullet). Both Kakashi and Zabuza called out in unison.

Shocked, Zabuza watched as his water dragon collided with Kakashi's, causing a small tidal wave. Glaring at the copy-nin, he saw the famed Sharingan eye sitting in Kakashi's left eye socket, with a scar going down the middle.

"So this is the famous Sharingan…Sorry kid! I'll have to cut our little battle short, this ones been in my little book for a while now…" He gestured to the little black book he had in his pouch.

Of course, he made a fatal mistake and that was taking his eyes off of Naruto. He smiled a little and went through hand seals before whispering:

"**Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai**…"**(**_See chapter one, __**Endo's jutsu corner**__ at the bottom for translation_**).**

Zabuza felt pain in his left leg. Looking down he saw it completely covered from view with flower petals of all things, and searing pain racketing through his body. Kakashi, seeing the opening his student created, prepared to deal a fatal blow with a kunai.

*Swish!*

All movement stopped as a swishing noise echoed the area and Zabuza stared wide-eyed. Naruto released his technique and observed the damage. The man's leg was cut in various places and looked like it was barely able to support itself. The real injury that had everyone else staring was the needle buried in Zabuza's neck. As the man fell forward, a youthful boy wearing a Kiri Hunter-nin mask appeared to catch him.

"I thank you, shinobi of Konoha. You have proved most reliable in aiding the capture of missing-nin Momochi Zabuza" At this, the group was startled. The boy continued. "I will now take this body off of your hands, thank you for your co-operation."

"No problem, good luck!" Kakashi said in a happy voice with an eyesmile. The boy nodded before leaving with the unconscious Zabuza. Once he was gone, Kakashi turned to Kurenai and whispered.

"Things are getting too serious with someone like Momochi Zabuza here, I'm gonna send word for back-up." He said seriously to Kurenai, who nodded. He then cut his finger and said:

"**Kuchiyose no jutsu!**" (Summoning Technique)

From the pile of smoke, a small brown pug with a Konoha bandanna appeared before Kakashi, looking bored.

"Yo Kakashi…What do you want?" The dog drawled. Kakashi handed him a written envelope.

"Pakkun, please take this back-up request to the Hokage and inform him that a troublesome situation had occurred." He said seriously to the now named Pakkun, who stiffened and nodded before running in the direction of Konoha. Kakashi sighed and turned to his fellow jounin.

"If we are to have any hope of surviving against someone of Zabuza's level, well have to take the genins training much more seriously." He said and got a nod in return. The group then continued their journey into the Wave.

Meanwhile in Konoha…

The Sandaime was giggling pervertedly while reading a small orange book. He was interrupted in his giggling by a knock on the door, so he jumped up and literally ran to a bookcase on the other side of the room and slammed the book behind some others.

Opening the door revealed his son Asuma and his team, Team 10. Looking at him lazily, the cigarette smoker gestured his team to the Hokage's desk.

"Tch…So troublesome…Hokage-sama, We of Team 10 feel that we are ready for a C-rank mission." The lazy Nara Shikamaru drawled in a bored voice, which caused Ino to whack him over the head and chiding him about respect. The old man merely chuckled before addressing them in his business tone.

"It would seem that we have need of a back-up to Teams 7 & 8 who were ambushed by a Momochi Zabuza, missing-nin from Kirigakure. This will require you all to pack and leave immediately. Do you accept? He asked.

Ino looked worried that the other teams were in danger and thus felt that she should help out by accepting. Shikamaru shrugged, but you could tell he was worried, and Chouji was surprised.

"We, Team 10, accept this mission, Hokage-sama." Replied Shikamaru in a business tone. The Hokage nodded at him and dismissed them.

After they left, he grinned pervertedly and went over to his bookcase, grabbing his copy of Icha Icha Paradise volume 3. He was just about to sit down on his Hokage chair when a loud boom interrupted him and a familiar bowl cut jounin kicked his door in.

"HOKAGE-SAMA! I, MAITO GAI, AND MY YOUTFUL TEAM 9 ARE HERE TO REQUEST A YOUTHFUL MISSION! YOSH!" Gai yelled. He was promptly followed inside by his team consisting of a feminine brown haired Hyuuga boy, a girl with twin buns, and a Gai mini-clone. The mini-clone looked admirably at Gai.

"YOSH! GAI-SENSEI, WHAT YOUTHFUL GOAL ARE WE TO ACCOMPLISH TODAY!" Gai's mini-clone yelled out.

Sarutobi suddenly got a truly evil idea in his head and grinned as he picked up a scroll that reeked of evil red energy. Yes, this would teach them not to interrupt his Icha Icha time!

"Very well, Team 9 your mission today is to capture Tora the cat." He said with a concealed evil grin and handed over the scroll to Gai.

"YOSH! LET US GO MY YOUTHFUL TEAM, FOR WE SHALL FINISH THIS MISSION IN RECORD TIME! AND IF WE CANNOT DO THAT, I WILL PERFORM BENCH PRESSES WITH 100 PREGNANT WOMEN ON MY BACK! AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT I WILL-"

"ENOUGH!" roared the Hokage. He really should get security cameras. That way he could hide under his desk and avoid the screaming jounin. His growing migraine would, sadly, increase as the next outburst came from Gai junior.

"YOSH! GAI-SENSEI! YOUR FIRES OF YOUTH BURN BRIGHTER THAN ANY STAR KNOWN TO MAN! I WILL START TRYING TO INCREASE MY FLAMES OF YOUTH!" Gai started crying while the other two genin twitched in the background.

"LEE!" "GAI-SENSEI!" "LEE!" "GAI-SENS-"

"SILENCE! LEAVE NOW!" Sarutobi yelled as his migraine was reaching such high levels (no, not over 9000!) that he had to take 5 pills from a container on his desk and pop them in his mouth. Sighing in content after the team left, he picked up his book and began to giggle again.

Five minutes passed and Sarutobi looked up from his book sweating and pale faced. Snapping his neck towards his desk, he looked at the pill container he just used.

'Prescribed Laxatives from Konoha Medical Hospital. Take only one a day when having "those" problems, Hokage-sama!" the label read

Sarutobi's eyes widened. The restroom was right down the end of the hallway! And he couldn't move lest an 'accident' occurred. Sighing shakily, he got up slowly and…

"AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" The cry echoed throughout the Elemental Nations.

"What was that?" asked Hoshigaki Kisame, member of Akatsuki, to his partner. That yell from a man could hold no good news for the recipient.

His partner, Uchiha Itachi, looked back at him with a blank face. Kisame, knowing he wouldn't get an answer from his partner, continued to follow him to who knows where…

With Team 7 & Team 8…

The teams had at long last reached Wave Country and Tazuna's hometown. The place looked like a dump. There were poor people everywhere and children scavenging the wreckage's of old buildings.

"This is horrible!" Sakura said. The others couldn't help but agree with her for the place indeed did look like a slum. Tazuna walked in front of the group.

"Well, here we are! Welcome to Wave everybody! Let's go and find my wonderful family!" He said happily and a few genin couldn't help but admire his happiness in such a situation. Walking through the slum village, the group couldn't believe how one mans actions could reduce a once prominent trading country to…this. It was sickening.

Walking slightly outside the village, the group stopped at a slightly better looking house. Tazuna grinned and walked ahead.

"Tsunami! Inari! I'm home!" He called. Out of the house came an attractive black haired woman and a small child. The family seemed to embrace slightly before the child, Inari, glared at the group of shinobi ran back inside. Seeing the looks of confusion, Tazuna elaborated.

"Little Inari's just a bit moody, don't mind him. For now, lets head inside and have some good dinner!" He said and the group followed him in except for Naruto. Kakashi looked at him in confusion.

"Aren't you coming inside Naruto?" He questioned the genin. Naruto shook his head slightly.

"I'm afraid that I am not quite hungry…I will gather information in the town and report back afterwards, Kakashi-sensei…" Naruto informed him.

"Alright, but be back before midnight, m'kay? We'll be discussing the situation after the family is asleep." Kakashi responded. Nodding slowly, Naruto backtracked to the village, Mia humming on his shoulder.

The group had eaten in Tazuna's house, and was wondering where Naruto was. Kiba almost came to blows with the kid, Inari, who said that they would all die and should just go away. Naturally, Kiba didn't like that and when he made a move to reply, Sasuke surprisingly stepped in.

"What would a child know about the world in which adults live in? Right now you're nothing more than a whiny brat who's too scared to lift a finger against a tyrant." He inputted. This caused the boy to go off on one again, before running outside. Soon after, the boy was comforted by Kakashi who explained the tragedy of Sasuke's life and the reason for his brutal behaviour. Needless to say, the boy felt a little guilty and apologised to the Uchiha, who only nodded.

Looking at the clock, Kakashi slowly counted the hand as it reached midnight. Hearing the door, he opened it to reveal Naruto, who stepped in quietly to avoid waking anyone up. He was questioned by the others on where he was but he mysteriously replied that they would find out soon. Kakashi gathered the group's attention around the dining table.

"Alright, this meeting is going to explain the current situation and how we are going to come up with a solution. First, I want a debriefing, you Kiba, tell us." Kiba looked a bit startled but regained himself before standing from his chair.

"Uh…The first situation was with the fight with those two freaks…then we, um, got attacked by Zabuza, and then he, uh, got caught by that Hunter-nin?" Kiba explained, hoping he gave a good analysis. Kurenai smiled.

"Aside from the 'uh's' and the 'um's', Kiba gave a good overall summary, now what else was there?" Kurenai said before looking over at Naruto, whose attention focused from Mia to Kurenai.

"I met a strange person in the forest…out near the entrance to Wave. He claimed to be gathering herbs for his friend. It seemed suspicious to me so I managed to steal a cloth with his scent attached…I was hoping that Kiba could help identify it for me…" He trailed off looking a Kiba, who looked excited about showing off. Seeing as he came from the Inuzuka clan, his tracking abilities were top notch and his sense of smell was one of the best to come out of the clan in years.

"Okay! Lets do this!" He said excitedly as Naruto handed him the cloth. Sniffing at it slightly, his nose picked out the scent and his eyes widened in realisation.

"It's that Hunter-nin that took Zabuza! His scent, as well as Zabuza's, is all over it!" this caused the group to become silenced and focused on Kakashi. The jounin thought to himself for a while before eyesmiling.

"It's a good thing that I sent for back-up after all!" He said happily. When the others looked at him in confusion, a knock on the door drew everyone's attention, causing them to tense up. Kakashi waved off their concerns and opened the door, which revealed a bored looking Asuma and Shikamaru, a hungry Chouji who looked at the meal that the others were eating, and a smiling Ino. Sakura naturally protested this.

"EEEEEH? Ino-pig? What the hell is someone like you doing here?" Sakura mock asked as Ino stormed over and began to argue with the 'Forehead'. Chouji literally jumped for the food, and began munching happily in the corner while Shikamaru went to stand by Naruto and Shino.

After getting the rowdy genin to calm down, They began to make arrangements for the confrontation with Zabuza and his accomplice, who Naruto revealed his name as Haku. Thus the group and their jounin sensei's prepared a training session.

"Alright kiddies! Today, we are gonna learn how to climb trees!" Kakashi said happily. The genin sweatdropped.

"K-Kakashi-sensei! What does climbing trees have to do with getting stronger?" Sakura questioned in confusion. Kakashi smiled at the genin's naivete.

"Why Saku-chan, don't you have faith in me?" He asked in mock hurt before laughing. "No, you will be climbing trees without your hands." This caused Naruto to perk up.

"It is a chakra control exercise…am I correct in this assumption?" He enquired, receiving a nod in reply.

"Good work Naru-chan!" He fake-gushed, causing Naruto to twitch and Kiba to guffaw loudly.

"Ah Ah Ah! Kiba-chan, you shouldn't laugh at your comrades!" Asuma entered the conversation. Kiba promptly shut up at twitched at the name.

"Come on boys, stop clowning around and get to work" Kurenai ordered and the group did as ordered. Soon, most of the genin were tired out and lying flat on their backs. The only ones who made it to the top of the tree were Naruto, Hinata, and Sakura. Sakura smirked at Ino as she lay panting on the ground. Sasuke looked pissed that he couldn't do such a meaningless task and thus started a contest with Kiba to see who could reach the farthest. This ended when Kakashi called the group in for strategy review.

"Alright, now its time to decide who fights Zabuza and Haku tomorrow and who guards Tazuna's family."

"I'm going to fight." Said Kiba, Sasuke, and surprisingly Sakura, although she might have just chosen to go to get Sasuke to fall for her, causing Ino to tag along as well.

"I shall remain here." Said Naruto and Shino.

"I-Ill stay h-here too" stuttered Hinata.

"Tch…How troublesome…looks like we have to fight too Chouji" Said Shikamaru and Chouji nodded.

"Okay, chibi-genin! Get prepared for tomorrow, because it's all or nothing" Kakashi announced as the group headed for their sleeping quarters.

Meanwhile…

"Tch! Slimy little ratfuck bastard…who does he think he is? Ordering ME around! Ought'a shove Kubikiri Houcho down his throat!" Zabuza said angrily and gestured to his large cleaver sword as Haku looked on in indifference.

"It is good news that we were able to hire backup from Uzu no Kuni, otherwise we might end up being outnumbered when the time for battle comes." Haku remarked and Zabuza stopped moaning to grunt in agreement.

"Yeah but they were goddamn greedy bastards…asking for such a large price…oh well, at least we got a good deal, ain't that right, Keichi?" Zabuza spoke the last part out loud and directed it to the shadows. Out of the darkness, a figure made his way into view. The man was rather tall, slightly shorter than Zabuza. He had his black hair tied up into a ponytail, which extended down to his upper back. His face was thin looking, with twin orbs of green eyes and a hitae-ate with a swirl attached to his forehead. His attire consisted of all black shinobi pants, shoes and shirt covered by a dark blue jounin jacket. He looked at Zabuza.

"I hope that you can keep up your end of the bargain, Momochi Zabuza. We of Uzu don't take kindly to betrayal…" He trailed off and Zabuza nodded stiffly.

"Yeah yeah… you'll get your money in exchange for your services, right? Don't worry about it, when we finish with Gato, our money problems will all be over!" He said in glee with Haku and Keichi nodding in the background.

Back with the Teams…

The sun was rising and the birds were singing…until a stray kunai from an irritable Kiba almost impaled some of them, which shut them up.

"Dammit…too damn early…" He moaned out tiredly with Akamaru barking in agreement. Sasuke turned to sneer at him.

"We are shinobi, dobe. We have to be ready for anything so stop whining" He said, which caused Kiba and Akamaru to growl at him.

"Sasuke-bitch!" He yelled.

"Come on, stop fighting guys…" Kakashi said nonchalantly while reading Icha Icha, causing Kurenai to glare at the book.

With Naruto, Shino, and Hinata…

Naruto was patrolling the east side of Tazuna's home. He enjoyed the nice mornings as Mia was always more playful at the time. Shino was at the west side with Hinata, who came along because she would be too shy around Naruto and cause her to lose concentration. That, and she liked Shino's silent nature as it was similar to Naruto…

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A female scream echoed throughout the woods, causing the three to turn and rush towards the house, hoping that they weren't too late…

**END OF CHAPTER**

**What was that scream? Will Naruto make it in time? Will the Hokage ever be able to leave his bathroom? Will Gai look cooler? Will-**

**Shit…getting off track with this long ass line…**

**I know. I am an evil person ending it here but I never planned on writing this far in one chapter. The next chapter will be the bridge battle and the journey back to Konoha.**

**Keep reading and gimme some reviews people! Thanks from Endo.**


	4. Chapter 4: Bridge finale, Return to Leaf

**Chapter 4: Bridge finale, Return to Konoha.**

**Hey all! Thanks for reviewing! Please keep reading!**

A woman's scream broke the silence of the surrounding forest. The woman, Tsunami, backed away at the sight of two samurai thugs.

"Listen lady, boss man wants you to come with us, give up peacefully and nobody has to get hurt." the one with the hat said. The one next to him, with his hair styled in four ponytails, was more impatient.

"Dammit Zouri! Hurry the hell up and just knock her out!" He yelled to the hat-wearing samurai now known as Zouri.

"Unlike you, I don't like to fight meaninglessly. I much prefer a less violent solution than you Waraji." Zouri said to the now name Waraji, who snorted and proceeded to put the kicking and screaming woman over his shoulder. A sudden bang attracted their attention to the kid, whose hand was locked around a crossbow.

"Hey you little punk, you better put that thing down before you get hurt!" Waraji threatened but Inari stayed strong. The samurai was angry with this and made to strike with his sword however his sword was intercepted by…

"Flower petals?" Zouri looked in confusion as a literal wall of flower petals surrounded the brat he was about to kill. A strange dream-like voice radiated through the area.

"**Sakurabana no Tate**…(Shield of Cherry Blossoms)" the voice carried through the air. "You have performed admirably, child. But please, stand back and allow me to take the stage…"

Naruto descended onto the front garden of the house to confront the two samurai. Narrowing his eyes at them, he proceeded to engage in a sword battle with Waraji, who pulled out two butcher knife weapons. Naruto frowned at the sight.

"How boring… 'She' is not pleased with this joke of a battle…I will aim to please her later…" He trailed off and quickly rushed Waraji with a series of stabs, spins, thrusts and aerial strikes. Soon the man collapsed into a pool of his own blood.

While this was happening, Zouri had knocked out Tsunami and was running through the forest with her on his back. He was surprised when he felt his legs suddenly buckle, causing him to drop to the ground. Looking around, he spotted a lavender-eyed girl in a Taijutsu stance. Growling, He pulled out his rusted looking katana. Just as he was about to charge the girl, a deep voice echoed around him.

"You should be paying more attention to those behind you." Zouri turned quickly and his eyes widened in surprise at seeing Shino, who held a lance in his hand…made out of insects.

"**Kabutomushi no Mori**!" (Lance of the Beetle) He cried and hurled the lance, which travelled at an insanely fast speed, and impaled the surprised Zouri into a tree. The insects in the lance dispersed back to a slightly panting Shino, who proceeded to explain the use of the technique to Hinata.

"The Kabutomushi no Mori is one of my original techniques that I came up with. If I were to rate it, I would say it would be an A-rank assassination technique due to its speed. I came up with it after seeing Kakashi-san explaining the basics of his Raikiri to Sasuke-san."

Hinata was impressed with the move and decided that she too would make one of her own to impress the one she loved. Yes, she would do some research when she got back. She literally dragged a slightly shocked Shino, who placed the unconscious Tsunami on his back, to see how Naruto was holding up.

They found him soon looking over a downed Waraji. Looking up, he spotted them and gestured them over.

"Well…it seems that you stopped the runaway…thank you for your assistance…" Naruto said to them. "I think that the best course of action would be to check up on the others…Hinata-hime, could you please remain here with Miss Tsunami and Inari-kun?" He asked, and the girl blushed at the name before nodding resolutely. Nodding in thanks, he and Shino rushed to the direction of the bridge, while Hinata escorted a shell-shocked Inari and his unconscious mother back home.

Meanwhile, at the bridge…

Kakashi was not having a good battle with Zabuza. He had thrown a ton of water techniques (which he copied with his Sharingan) but the man then had to start rushing with his sword. It was at a time like this that he wished he had his White Fang.

"Come on, Sharingan no Kakashi! After I finish with you, I'm gonna hunt down that kid with the rapier for round two!" He yelled and rushed at the jounin.

Asuma, Kurenai and Shikamaru were fighting another accomplice of Zabuza, an Uzu jounin. The man was strong and had managed to already knock out Sakura, Ino, and Chouji. They had to hold on though; they wouldn't die without a fight.

Kiba was scared. This ice boy Haku had seriously injured Sasuke-bitch inside the damn mirror dome! But as an Inuzuka, he refused to back down. It was a matter of honour dammit! He sighed and looked at the pouch on his hip. Digging around, he apparently found what he was looking for, a black pill. Grimacing at it slightly, he turned to Akamaru.

"Sorry buddy…looks like we're gonna have to use code: black…" He said, causing Akamaru to look shocked before nodding seriously and bark an agreement. Popping a pill into both his and Akamaru's mouths, they underwent a transformation. Rising into the sky, a giant two-headed black demonic dog with piercing red eyes loomed over the ice dome. (Think of a two headed giant Houndoom from Pokemon).

"**Jinjū Konbi Henge: Naraku no Ryouken**!" (Man Beast Combination Transformation: Hound of Hades).

The demonic hellhound looked at its prey, the surprised ice user and lunged towards him, smashing and breaking the ice dome with its large claws and sending Haku soaring across the bridge. After the dog calmed down, the transformation ended, leaving an unconscious Kiba and Akamaru in its wake.

With Kakashi…

"I apologise Zabuza…but you are too dangerous to be allowed to live! RAIKIRI!" Kakashi cried and his hand was engulfed in lightning chakra. He ran at a fast speed towards the immobilised Zabuza and lightning blade met flesh, but…

!

Kakashi found himself staring at Haku, who had intercepted the strike and had a huge puncture wound in his heart.

"W-Why?" Both Kakashi and Zabuza questioned in unison.

"Because, You…are my precious person…Zabuza-sama…" the boy trailed off as he looked dead at Kakashi. "I won't let…your dreams die…" He said as the light slowly faded from his eyes and he fell from Kakashi's arm. Zabuza looked impassively at his body. However, the tragic moment ended as a clapping sound echoed through the mist covered bridge.

"Well well well! Looks like I hired a wimpy baby demon after all! Its such a shame that the poor boy had to die but I'm sure we can come up with a suitable solution." The slimy criminal leader Gato walked up to Haku's dead body and kicked it.

"A worthless tool for a worthless shinobi!" He laughed, as did his large band of mercenaries. Zabuza looked enraged.

"You slimy little ratfuck bastard! Should've known that a weasel like you wouldn't even think of paying us!" He yelled before looking down at Haku. "And I will not tolerate the ill treatment of the dead…" he whispered. Walking slowly to the downed Sasuke, he grabbed a kunai with his teeth and charged towards the group of mercenaries, who looked terrified of the Demon of the Mist as he loomed upon them. Some had gotten a few weapons lodged into Zabuza's back but the man, like a possessed demon, ran straight at Gato and impaled him with the kunai.

"D-Demon!" was the man's last word as he fell off of the bridge, into the murky depths of the sea below. Looking down, Zabuza released the kunai from his mouth and hobbled towards Haku. He fell before he even reached it.

The mercenaries then became enraged as their meal ticket was effectively gone and rushed towards the injured shinobi. The group was already tired out and thus was about to faint until an arrow fired from the air. Looking at the source, they saw Inari and a large group of armed civilians behind them. Sighing gratefully, they watched as the civilians slowly scared off the mercenaries leaving only them, Kakashi's group of Kiba and Sasuke, and a near dead Zabuza. The near dead man looked at Kakashi, who stood over him.

(Play 'Sadness and Sorrow Piano version' from here)

"Kakashi…Can I ask you a favour? Can…can you let me see his face one more time?" The dying man asked in monotone. Kakashi closed his eyes and pulled his headband over his Sharingan before smiling softly under his facemask.

"Sure…" He then pulled out the weapons sticking out of Zabuza's back and proceeded to carry him towards Haku. One of the villagers had noticed snow falling from the star, which drew Zabuza's attention.

"Haku…are you crying?" He questioned.

Kakashi then placed the body of the barely alive Zabuza next to the dead body of Haku. Zabuza thanked Kakashi, who turned away and walked down the bridge. Zabuza turned his head to face Haku.

"You…were always by my side…even when I never wanted you to be there." He said. "Even though I was always tough on you…you still stayed with me…and I came to see you as the son I never had." He painfully raised a hand to place on Haku's cheek. "Even…even though I know that I could never go…I would like to go where you go…to the heaven that you always talked about…" He watched as a snowflake melted on Haku's cheek, forming a tear streak. Zabuza closed his eyes.

"Kakashi…I have one more request" he said as the jounin in question walked back over. "Bury us together…" He said, as the light left his eyes, and his soul departed to Haku in heaven.

Kiba, who had awoken earlier, was openly crying at the tragedy. Suddenly, in a swirl of leaves, Naruto appeared beside Kakashi. He looked at the fallen shinobi with a sad frown.

"They shared a truly beautiful love for each other…" He looked up as the snow fell around and on him. "He told me that it always snowed where he lived…" He trailed off and Kakashi nodded before asking Naruto to help bury the two dead shinobi, who agreed.

Keichi was fleeing through the forests of Wave. Thankfully, those Konoha-nin didn't follow him. He cursed when he felt Zabuza's chakra fully deplete, guaranteeing death. He was just about to head back to Uzu when he saw him. Keichi's eyes widened when he looked at the boy.

Naruto, Kakashi and Kiba were at the freshly planted graves of Haku and Zabuza, whose grave had his sword planted into the ground. The trio was silent except for Kiba's small sniffles. A sudden movement caused all three to turn and confront the intruder. It turned out to be the Uzu-nin that Zabuza hired…and was staring at Naruto like he was a ghost. Kakashi cleared his throat, attracting the man's attention although his eyes didn't turn from Naruto.

"Can we help you with something?" Yep, straight to the point Kakashi.

"N-no its fine, just thought I saw something familiar that's all…" He trailed before bowing at the three and heading back to Uzu no Kuni.

"What a freak…" Kiba commented, getting nods from his fellow mourners. Soon, Kiba and Kakashi left and Naruto was standing alone. He walked up to Zabuza's sword.

"To love someone... It is not to shut one's eyes to the other, nor to block one's ears to the truth... To love one another... Is to walk through life together... Open your eyes, open your ears... Look at each other... and together seek the best path for the both of you…" Naruto said. "I wonder…will I ever experience that kind of love?…" Shaking his head for it didn't matter yet, he put his hand out forward.

"I believe that a blade is useless without a wielder…and only you ever deserved to hold this magnificent creature. To stop the thieves, I will destroy this sword…"

"**Amatsu Kusabana Maisou: Ichiban Dankai**…" (Imperial Flowering Plant Burial: First Stage). The flower petals gathered and formed a cocoon around the mighty Kubikiri Houcho, and raised it off the ground. Naruto waited before clicking his fingers, signifying the **Niban Dankai **(Second Stage), which caused the flower cocoon to fly down to the ground at a breakneck speed. Once the petals scattered, the sword was cut cleanly in uneven angles and had over a dozen scratches, making it unusable for a while. He looked at the graves and placed a white rose on Haku's and a red rose on Zabuza's.

"Farewell, Momochi Zabuza and…Momochi Haku. May your trip to the afterlife be pleasant…" He offered a farewell prayer to the fallen shinobi. Turning around and heading back, he absentmindedly scratched Mia behind her ear getting a purr for a reward and a small smile on Naruto.

A short time later, after returning to the gates of Wave, the group was saying farewell to the civilians of the now free country.

"Hey! We haven't even named the bridge yet!" One villager called out, causing widespread murmurs. Tazuna cleared his throat before addressing the confused civilians.

"My friends! Our bridge shall be called the Great Momochi Bridge!" This gained looks of surprise. Tazuna continued on. "To honour the sacrifice that two shinobi made that helped save us from Gato…" He trailed at the end, causing civilians to bow heads in respect.

"Well, It's been enjoyable but we have to leave now" said Kakashi. Inari ran out and up to Kiba.

"Kiba-nii-san! Come visit alright?" Inari called out to Kiba, who waved back.

The group of Teams 7, 8, & 10 slowly headed through the forests of Fire Country, hoping to reach Konoha before nightfall. Looking back at the students, he took notice of their expressions. Naruto was oddly solemn, which was rarely seen through his dream look. Kiba was still in a small shock over the death of the two shinobi they fought. Sasuke looked angry with Kiba for some reason. Sakura looked angry with Kiba because Sasuke was. Hinata and Ino were looking concerned at Naruto. Shikamaru and Chouji were making idle chit chat with Kurenai and Asuma. Kakashi was mostly concerned about Sasuke's reaction though.

"Great…now I'll have to put up with a whiny angsty brat…Why do you hate me Kami-sama?" He cursed to the heavens and he was sure that Kami winked saucily at him. Sighing, the group continued to head to Konoha for a hopeful vacation…

The teams had at long last reached Konoha despite the problems that were encountered along the way. The first was Sasuke's attempts at trying to fight Kiba and not the other way around. Sakura was proving to be a constant annoyance to everyone with her fangirl yelling, such fanatical devotion was irritating even Ino.

As they entered the office of the Hokage, they took notice of the 'caution: wet floor sign' to the right of the room. The Hokage himself looked rather pale and was slightly green. Clearing his throat, he asked for the mission report but Kiba decided to get a word in.

Sniff! Sniff! "What the hell is that smell? It reeks of bleach and shi-" He was about to finish until Kurenai slammed her hand over his mouth, muffling his protests at being silenced.

"Mind your language, Kiba!" She yelled at him. The Hokage chuckled weakly before gesturing the report. Kakashi stood and looked on lazily.

"Well, we did it…" He said and Sarutobi blinked. That was it? Surely there was much more than that. Suddenly, Kakashi turned to Kiba.

"Bet you your mother's gonna kill you when she finds out what you did…" He said with a sinister grin under his mask that made Kiba remember that he used a Kinjutsu, and paled.

"H-hey Kakashi-sensei! There's really no need for-" He said before getting cut off again.

"KIBAAAAAAAA!" The scream came, followed by a feral looking woman that the teams could only guess was his mother. Kiba looked mortified as his mother grabbed him by the ear and yanked him away forcefully, with him screaming apologies and Akamaru looking like he was embarrassed by the situation.

After observing the rather comical scene, the rest of the genin left the jounin so that they could give the true report in privacy.

After listening to the report, Sarutobi frowned a little. Everything went smoothly aside from the death, which was tragic indeed. It troubled him because a C turned A rank mission should have had more in the report than what he was given. Sighing, he put the folder down and…

"Noooooooo….Not the laxatives again…" He moaned as he clutched his stomach as tried to walk to the restroom down the hall, holding the wall as support as he crawled along. Yes! This time he would make it!

Meanwhile…

Naruto was inside his mindscape, playing with Macha in her humanoid cat form. Though he preferred when she rode around on his shoulder, it was nice to know that the true person still existed.

"I shall visit again…Macha." He announced before moving to leave. Petting the Guardian creatures, he moved to a door near the end of the mindscape.

He awakened in his room on his bed. Sighing, he looked at Mia, then closed his eyes slowly, letting sleep take him into dreams…

Meanwhile in Uzu no Kuni…

"You are sure of this?" Came the question from a female voice.

"Yes ma'am!" Keichi replied to the village leader on one knee. "The boy looked exactly like Kushina-sensei did."

This caused the village leader to consider something before coming to a decision.

"The Chuunin Exams will soon be held in Konoha, am I correct?" Getting a nod in reply, she continued. "…Dispatch teams 6 & 11, they will compete."

After nodding once more, Keichi was stopped as he reached the door.

"Please inform the teams of our plan…" Came the command from the woman.

Bowing swiftly, Keichi left to do as he was told. The woman sighed and turned to the window in her office and looked out at the rebuilt village surrounded by whirlpools.

"Soon…" She remarked.

**END OF CHAPTER**

**What is this? What is Uzu no Kuni planning? Find out during the next chapter(s).**

**Not as long as I would have liked but I wanted to keep the important events of the Wave Arc inside this and the previous chapter instead of moving to the Chuunin Exams Arc straight away in the same chapter.**

**Note: Dammit! I always get watery eyes when I think about that tragic death scene (even though I'm a guy). Even writing it made me feel bad.**

**Endo's Jutsu Corner: Finally got some different people using Original Jutsu! Let me explain them to you.**

**Sakurabana no Tate **(Shield of Cherry Blossoms): Used by Naruto. As the name implies, It is a sturdy shield of flowers that gather to protect either the user or a target of choice. C-Rank Ninjutsu.

**Kabutomushi no Mori** (Lance of the Beetle): Used by Shino. User focuses and extends chakra and insects into a lance shaped weapon which, when hurled, can kill quickly. A-rank Assassination Ninjutsu.

**Jinjū Konbi Henge: Naraku no Ryouken** (Man Beast Combination Transformation: Hound of Hades): Used by Kiba. A forbidden jutsu of the Inuzuka clan that causes the user to transform into a large two headed hell hound. A much more dangerous version of the Two headed wolf transformation as it gives up speed completely for unstoppable brute force, able to crush through almost anything. A-rank Kinjutsu of Inuzuka clan.

**Well, that's all. Hope to have more reviewers even though I'm just writing this for the joys of writing my ideas. Hope to have the next chapter out soon!**

**-Endo**


	5. Chapter 5: The Chuunin Exams: Part I

**Thanks for the reviews everyone! Yes, I know that the last chapter was slightly shorter than the others but that was just to finish off the wave arc and the return trip to Konoha. Keep reading and reviewing for this is the chuunin arc.**

**Chapter 5: The Chuunin Exams: Part 1**

After the whole fiasco in Wave, Team 7 continued to do D-rank missions for around a few weeks. This brought loud proclamations of complaint from Sakura, Annoyance and anger from Sasuke, and mild irritation from Naruto. Their luck would take a different turn when their sensei Kakashi turned up carrying forms, much to the confusion of the Genin.

"Okay, gather around guys." He gestured to them. Once they were near him he shoved three forms into their hands. One for each of them…

"An 'Application for the Chuunin Exams'?" Sakura read off the sheet before looking up at her sensei in confusion. "D-don't you think it's a bit too soon for something like this, sensei?" She questioned in slight fear. She was somewhat aware of what happened in those exams. Kakashi eyesmiled.

"Maa…don't worry too much Saku-chan! Just look, Naru-chan and Sasu-chan have the right idea!" He gushed as the two other Genin twitched violently at the names they were given.

"Please refrain from those names." The two said in eerie unison. Kakashi waved them off and gestured to the forms once more. Sasuke and Naruto wordlessly signed the forms and Sakura hesitated slightly before giving in and hoping for the best. Maybe she should train…

Meanwhile, some time later…

Naruto was walking calmly down the street, ignoring the glares of the 'Ugly dolls'. His keen senses picked up a disturbance in the area. When he reached the corner, he peeked around to confirm his suspicions.

A person dressed in black pyjamas and purple face paint was holding up a young boy, who was younger than him. Thinking it trouble, he moved to investigate.

"If I were you…" His dream-like voice descended upon the boy. "I would leave that child alone…" He fell slowly from the trees and landed on the ground with glowing petals falling from the sky. The guy in pyjamas looked at him funnily before ignoring him and tried to throttle the kid. Naruto had enough of this insolent mongrel…

"**Ame no Ikusen Hanabira** (Rain of a Thousand Petals)…" He called out after performing the correct seals. Suddenly, the whole sky was seemingly engulfed in glowing flower petals, which then proceeded to crash into the startled boy in pyjamas. Outside the genjutsu, the boy was rolling on the floor, trying to shake off an invisible enemy. The kid who was being held hostage looked at him in awe.

"Woah…So cool!" He gushed. "Thanks mister!" and with that he ran off. Turning back, Naruto noticed that the boy had broken the genjutsu and was making subtle gestures to the package strapped on his back. He was about to remove it when a girl with blonde hair tied up in four pigtails stopped him with a…fan?

"Kankuro…what are you thinking? You planned on using Karasu this early? Do you want 'him' to find out?" She yelled and the now named Kankuro twitched. His flinching was put on hold as a stone careened into the back of his head. Looking at who dared hit him, he found that it wasn't the feminine redhead guy, but a black haired boy in the trees, smirking at him.

"What are you doing here Suna-nin? The exams aren't until later so you shouldn't hang around, or people would get suspicious." The boy said as he hopped down, revealing himself as Sasuke.

"Okay screw it! I'm gonna-!" Kankuro couldn't finish his sentence as a slightly shorter red haired boy appeared next to him in a swirl of sand. The boy had black rings around his green eyes and the kanji for love tattooed on the left side of his forehead. On his back was a huge gourd. He focused killing intent on Kankuro.

"Kankuro…stop playing around…or I will kill you." He said in a monotonous voice with a menacing edge. Kankuro edged away in fear, while the blonde girl was slowly moving away.

"Temari…why didn't you tell Kankuro to stop?" The red haired boy questioned.

"S-sorry Gaara…I didn't g-get here in t-time." The girl now known as Temari said fearfully. The boy nodded to her before looking at the people in front of him. He looked at Sasuke and Naruto.

"Who are you?" The question caused the two to look at each other before Sasuke went first.

"Uchiha Sasuke." "…Uzumaki Naruto." Came the introductions. The boy nodded.

"I am Gaara…I look forward to seeing you in the exams…both of you…" and with that, the boy departed with his friends just as Sakura finally turned up.

"Huh? What's the matter?" She said to her team-mates. Sasuke grunted before stalking off, Sakura trailing behind him like a loyal puppy.

A few days later…

The groups of Genin were all huddled together in a room, waiting for the exams to begin. Genin from all over the world came to test themselves in these exams, hoping for not just promotion in rank, but an opportunity to fight others from all over. All of the Genin were shivering with anticipation at the coming exams. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto idly spotted Teams 8 and 10.

After meeting up with each other in the midst of the crowd, Team 7 moved in silence towards the building where the first exam would take place. As they entered the building, Sasuke took notice of the genjutsu covering a sign. Narrowing his eyes, he and his team moved towards the designated area…when they saw a few other genin arguing with two disguised chuunin. The one with a bowl cut, large eyebrows and green spandex got decked across the face, landing across the floor. The girl on his team, wearing her hair in twin buns and a Chinese outfit spoke out.

"We're just trying to enter the exam, please let us through!" See seemingly begged to the doorman, who scoffed at her.

"Listen kid, we know all about these exams and let me tell you, we failed two times before due to the insane difficulty." He said. The one next to him spoke up.

"We're just trying to save your lives instead of letting you risk them!" He yelled. It was at that moment that Sasuke chose to interfere.

"Yeah yeah…just get rid of that pathetic genjutsu on the door and show us the real room" He announced with a victorious smirk. The doorman took offence to the pathetic remark and moved to kick the Uchiha in the face, who prepared to attack with a fist in retaliation. The biggest shock came when a green blur shot between the two, catching Sasuke's fist and the chuunin's foot with his hands. This got the bowl cut boy a scolding from the other members of his team, the hairbun girl and a feminine looking Hyuuga boy. Suddenly, to her chagrin, the bowl cut noticed Sakura and blushed.

"My beautiful Cherry Blossom! How beautiful you are! Will you go out with me?" He yelled and Sakura backed away, looking like she witnessed a murder.

"N-No Way! You're too weird! And Sasuke-kun is the only one for me!" She yelled, causing the boy to twitch.

The feminine Hyuuga stepped up to the aforementioned Uchiha and Sasuke looked at him with something akin to confusion.

"You are Uchiha Sasuke, correct?" He asked the Uchiha.

"Its normally polite to introduce yourself before asking for someone else's name." He said in response. The boy twitched a little in agitation before replying.

"I an Hyuuga Neji…I look forward to seeing you in the exams, Uchiha." He introduced himself. The spandex guy perked up at the name 'Uchiha' and sprinted to Sasuke.

"Uchiha Sasuke-san! My name is Rock Lee! I would be grateful if we could have a match." The now named Lee announced. Sasuke looked a little baffled before smirking.

"Bring it!"

"Yosh!"

A little away from the building, the two teams arrived at a training ground. Team Kakashi on one side and Team Gai on the other. The girl, Tenten, walked to the middle.

"One on One, Taijutsu only…" She called out in boredom. With that, the two genin tensed up and jumped to fight.

Heavy and light hits were exchanged as Sasuke and Lee battled across the field, although it was clear that with age comes experience because Sasuke was losing, even with his Sharingan he couldn't keep up with the spandex menace as he managed to land strike after strike, brutalising Sasuke's defence at alarming speed.

"S-Sasuke-kun is losing? Even though he has the Sharingan?" Sakura yelled, unwilling to believe that Sasuke and the bloodline of the Uchiha would lose to such a weirdo. Naruto spoke up after a while of silence after observing the genin.

"…Lee-san is more suited to Taijutsu than our Sasuke is..." He said. "Even with those eyes…if he can't even see Lee-san's movements, how can he even expect to keep up?" This caused Lee to look at Naruto with amazement.

"You are most knowledgeable! Yes, my speciality is Taijutsu and I won't lose easily in my forte!" He shouted at the end, delivering a powerful jump kick to Sasuke's jaw, causing him to soar into the air, and caused Sakura to scream in fright.

Lee suddenly reappeared behind Sasuke and began to unwrap the bandages on his arms.

"Now…I will prove to everyone that geniuses of hard work are better than natural geniuses!" Just as he was about to unveil his technique, an animal's fist collided with his face, hurling him into a nearby wall. Lee looked up in confusion, which morphed to shock when he saw that the animal that hit him was a large turtle with a Konoha hitae-ate. The turtle, much to the surprise of Team 7 spoke, yelled at Lee.

"Lee, you baka! You know that the move you were about to use is forbidden!"

"B-but!" Lee made to reply but the turtle cut him off.

"I hope you are prepared for punishment because Gai-sensei is here!" The turtle yelled. A man who looked like an older version of Lee appeared on the turtle, looking quite angry with the boy. Suddenly, he punched Lee in the face. Then he started crying.

"Lee! You fool! Why did you attempt use such a technique on a comrade?" He yelled, which caused Lee to tear up as well.

"I'm sorry Gai-sensei! I- I just wanted to prove that hard work surpassed genius…" The man's face softened…then he embraced the boy in a hug.

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

A sudden genjutsu clouded behind them, giving off a sunset beach. The three disturbed genin and cat of Team 7 moved to leave but the man had unfortunately spotted them.

"Oh what is this?" He reappeared behind the team at an insane speed. "You are Eternal Rival Kakashi's team aren't you?" He questioned getting dazed nods from them. After mild chit-chat with the man, and Sasuke being angry that his speed was slow, they ran to the examination room but saw Kakashi standing outside the door…reading porn…again.

"Yo! Good work team! Have fun in the exam!" He called as he ran off, leaving a mystified group of genin.

"He came here…just to say that?" Sakura yelled. Sighing, the group moved to the hall, oblivious to the people stalking them.

"So…what did you find out?" One questioned to the smaller group of three.

"Nothing. All we learned is that he's team-mates with an Uchiha brat and a civilian girl." One of the three remarked, decidedly male in voice. Suddenly, a female voice came from next to him.

"Huh? That's all you know? Didn't he do anything in the brawl with the other team?" She questioned. This time, a third voice spoke up, this one again female.

"He didn't participate in the fight…rather giving observations about the one in green spandex." She spoke with a shudder. That one freaked her out, especially when the older one turned up…

"How disappointing…oh well, at least we located him amongst the others. Keep an eye on him during the exam but don't do anything to draw attention to yourself." Spoke the older voice, again another female. This gave us three females and one male. "Move out…" she ordered to her team. As the woman looked up in the sky, her Uzu hitae-ate shined from under her long black hair while the sun struck it. She sighed before vanishing in a swirl of leaves.

With the Genin…

"Wow! Looks like we're all here huh? Don't hold back guys!" Kiba said in a loud voice, which caused them to wince at the noise.

"Sheesh! So loud, its like you guys are rookie academy students…" Came a drawl, causing most Genin in the room to turn to the voice. A silver haired older teen wearing glasses approached the group.

"Hello there, fellow Konoha Genin!" He said cheerfully. "My name is Yakushi Kabuto, nice to meet you!" The group looked dumbfounded at him.

"I suppose it's my duty as a fellow shinobi to offer a helping hand to newbies…" He said, slightly adjusting his glasses. He pulled out a deck of orange cards from the inside of his pouch.

"These…are my Info Cards. I have access to a wide range of things such as info on shinobi, past exams and other stuff." Sasuke walked up to him.

"So you can give out info, huh…Let me see." Sasuke practically ordered. Kabuto laid the cards out in front of him like a professional gambler.

"I have two names…Rock Lee of Konoha and Gaara of Suna…" He said as the silver haired bespectacled teen frowned.

"It's really not that fun if you know their names…but oh well!" He said as he rummaged through the cards before two fell out. Clearing his throat, he read them out.

"Okay…first we have Lee. Says here that he can't use chakra so he specialises only in taijutsu. His team-mates are Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. His mission record is 42 D-ranks and 3 C-ranks (Don't know if this is right)."

He picked up the second card and cleared his throat once more.

"Now its Gaara…Hmm…says he has an impenetrable sand defence and that he returned from every mission he's been from unharmed. Team-mates are his brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari. His mission record is 1 D-rank, 7 C-ranks, and…woah! A B-rank! This guy doesn't fool around…"

The Genin gaped at the idea of someone with such power and still be only a Genin. Sakura looked around, thinking of a question on her mind, she asked Kabuto.

"Um, Kabuto-san. Do you know who those guys are?" Sakura gestured to two groups, one with whirlpool symbols and one with musical note symbols. She silently noticed that most of the whirlpool shinobi were looking at Naruto in one way or another.

"Well, I know that the ones with the whirlpool insignia are from Uzu-no-Kuni but I had heard it was destroyed…perhaps they rebuilt it? The others are just some no-name village called Oto, quite weak actually." He said loud enough for the Oto Genin to hear, who became furious and attacked the bespectacled teen, causing his glasses to break and killing intent to be released. After getting over the shock, the door slammed open revealing the intimidating figure of a giant man with a black trench coat and bandanna.

"Alright, shut up you little maggots! You, Oto Genin! I don't know how they do things where you're from but here we have a thing called restraint!" He yelled, and the Genin apologised for the ruckus.

"Follow me…your first exam will be taken in an empty classroom."

When the group entered, they noticed the rows of desks lined up across the room. Naruto took a seat next to Hinata, causing a blush, and was joined next to him by Shino. After a murmur of good lucks, the exam was underway.

As he looked over the questions on the test, Naruto raised an eyebrow. These questions absolutely had him baffled. Looking around left and right, he could see a vast amount of the students thought the same while others were cheating in some way. The bun haired girl was using wire to manipulate the mirrors in all four corners of the room to get answers for her and her team-mates. Sasuke was using his Sharingan to copy the hand moves of the guy in front, and the Hyuuga were using their Byakugan to see the answers from the hidden chuunin of the room. Shikamaru was sleeping and Chouji was eating…big surprise. Ino was using her Shintenshin technique on Sakura, taking over her body temporarily to get her answers. The most interesting one was the redhead from Suna, who used some kind of sand eye to observe the answers. Frowning, Naruto turned back to his test.

A few solutions came to mind. He could use genjutsu to cover the area in enough time to get the answers, or he could simply try to work out the test normally…He went for option one. Placing hands together under the table, he whispered quietly.

"**Ame no Ikusen Hanabira**… " With that call, over a thousand flower petals erupted outside and entered through the open door and windows. This caused people to swipe in irritation or give looks of awe at the suddenly beautiful scenery. In the confusion, Naruto had Mia run across desks and snatch a random paper. After Mia gave him the paper, receiving a stroke on her right ear as a reward, Naruto proceeded to copy the stolen test paper before ripping the stolen document up and mixing it in with the flowers in the genjutsu.

Ibiki was not having a good day. First, his alarm clock (ringing of painful tortured screams) woke him up two hours early. Then he found out that the store ran out of coffee, causing him to spit death threats and torture the owner of the store briefly. Now, someone had flooded his wonderfully dull exam room with flower petals, blinding him from seeing who the little shit was that did it. After finding no one responsible he grumbled before returning to his seat and glaring at the genin. After an hour, an alarm rang, signalling the end of the first test, and many genin sighed in relief. This didn't last when, from outside the window, a ball shaped object smashed through and exploded to reveal a banner.

"INTRODUCING THE SEXY AND SINGLE MITARASHI ANKO!" it read, and soon a woman with purple tied up hair in a brown trench coat and very revealing undergarments came in and smiled at them.

"No time to rest yet, maggots! The second test will begin immediately! Now, follow me!" She yelled, ignoring Ibiki who was complaining about her entrances.

She lead the group of genin towards a foreboding looking gate to a dark looking forest. She turned and smirked at the genin.

Alright you maggots, this is were the fun begins! This second test will be to gather one of each scroll, Heaven and Earth from the other teams." She said, gesturing to the marked scrolls. "You will be doing this in my little playground, The Forest Of Death." She finished with a smirk.

Of course, Kiba being Kiba, he had to open his big mouth to provoke the woman.

"Huh? What kinda name is 'Forest of Death'? Wow soooo scary!" He mocked while laughing, which was cut off when a kunai slashed his cheek and Anko appeared behind him.

"You better watch out in there, little boy…it's your kind that spill that delicious blood I love." She then licked the boy's cheek, getting a blush and goofy smile. After retrieving her kunai from a kunoichi with a long tongue, she prepared to hand out the scrolls, giving team 7 an Earth.

Soon, the groups of chuunin hopefuls were each stationed at a gate for each team. After a few moments of preparation, Anko slowly started to let the teams in.

Hopping through the dense jungle was quite troublesome in Sasuke's opinion. What did this have to do with growing stronger? Playing fetch the scroll? He should be working on new jutsu, fighting strong opponents and obtaining the means to kill that certain man. This was nothing more than a pointless childish game…

Sakura was quite happy even in this horrible foreboding forest. She finally had time with Sasuke-kun! This was the perfect opportunity! Even though her other team-mate was there, she knew he wouldn't get in the way. Yes, she was quite grateful to be on this team.

Naruto was observing the surrounding area with caution. This forest was…absolutely vulgar. A seeping presence was stalking them slowly, like a predator about to snap its jaws upon its unfortunate prey. Shaking these thoughts, he could idly sense some of the other genin groups in the exam watching them. Sighing a little, he addressed his team-mates.

"Sakura-san…Sasuke-san, I will be scouting elsewhere…" He said and before the two could reply, he vanished in a swirl of red petals. His team-mates had then realised that they were being watched and silently thanked Naruto for diverting them.

With Naruto…

He idly noted two teams following him as he separated from his team. He smiled in amusement. 'She' would enjoy this…

In the trees, a Kiri genin team was pursuing the feminine boy with his cat. They were dressed in all beige bodysuits with breather masks. The apparent leader watched as their target stopped moving and landed in a clearing. He smirked, this would be enjoyable. He and his team had gathered in a circular formation around the boy.

"Sorry pal, but we're gonna have to ask you to nicely hand over your scroll." He made gestures with his sword. The boy just ignored them, content in stroking that cat on his shoulder, much to the anger of the team who began moving around him. Suddenly, the boy sighed.

"How uninteresting…" The boy commented in a dream-like voice. "This ordinary type of battle is boring to her…I will make her happy." He said and the team watched in awe as flower petals began to surround the boy, who started to glow a pinkish purple. The boy then clutched his hands over his heart.

"This is it…come to me, my friend…come to me, my **MACHA**!" He screamed the last word as his body glowed brightly causing the team to cover their eyes.

As the glow died down, the team slowly lowered their arms and gazed with wide terrified eyes at this…monster in front of them.

It was huge, that was an understatement. Easily dwarfing the size of most Summon bosses. Its upper body resembled a feline-like creature that was a deep purple bordering black, with its eerie red eyes gazed impassively at them. Over the left side of its face was a white mask like appendage and covering its head like a wedding veil was a transparent patterned cape. Its lower body was the most surprising as, in place of what should have been legs, was a gigantic white rose with intricate black patterns. (NOTE: See Macha Avatar form from .Hack/G.U. only with a white rose instead of a red one)

"…**Only through boredom and pity do I reveal this form to you**…" The cat beast spoke in a chilling voice. "**Pray that you suffer quickly**…" With that, the cat suddenly placed its hands together.

"**Gesshoku no Kyuushuu**…(Moonlight of Attraction)" Suddenly, to the surprise of the genin team, a huge red moon with an eerie yellow glowing eye appeared behind the cat creature and an ominous red light fell from it, striking one of the genin. The struck genin went wide-eyed before slumping. His comrades the moved to their unconscious friend to help wake him up.

Suddenly the boy's eyes shot open but his eyes appeared dazed, like in a trance. As fast as lightning, the entrapped boy's sword met flesh through his comrade's chest.

"Nezumi, what the fu-" His leaders comment was cut off as Nezumi's sword slashed his throat. The charmed boy looked at the cat creature, which was gazing back impassively.

"**Fool…to give in to temptation is an unforgivable sin…I must amend the vice that has sprouted root**…" He then gathered a sphere of pinkish purple energy in his left hand. He gazed with narrowed red eyes at the still dazed genin, who still looked love struck.

"**Love can sometimes be a cruel and harsh mistress…Kyozetsuhannou!** (Rejection)" With that, the sphere was driven through heart of the last Kiri genin, whose eyes shone with unshed tears as the life left his eyes, and caused him to collapse in a pile.

The cat creature then glowed brightly and shrunk down, revealing Naruto and Mia, who looked quite happy at the events. Naruto smiled softly at her and then picked up the fallen team's scroll before walking out of the clearing slowly.

Up in the trees a little further away, another team with the headband marking Uzu had seen the battle. Wide eyed were they, who were still trying to regain their nerves. None of them had seen what happened to the team as all that happened was the group of Kiri-nin standing in front of the boy, then one started to kill off his own team-mates! This would have to be reported to their sensei…

With Sasuke and Sakura

"AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH" Sasuke cried out as the snake man had bitten him on his right shoulder, leaving a strange black pattern in his wake.

"Kukuku! Farewell Sasuke-kun. I will be seeing you again soon." He then idly heard Sakura ask the man's name.

"I am Orochimaru." With those words, he blacked out, vaguely hearing Sakura's screaming.

Sakura was scared. This strange and unexpectedly strong man had appeared in front of them from out of nowhere. He then proceeded to fight Sasuke while she stood frozen in fear at the man's killing intent. Soon, the man had then bit Sasuke in the neck, eliciting a scream from the black haired boy. As the man vanished and Sasuke collapsed, she wished with all her heart that someone would help her…

"Dammit Dosu! Why do we have to fight some brat for anyway? This sucks!" Came the voice of a brown haired boy, who complained at the mummy-like boy called Dosu.

"Zaku, shut up." Dosu said to the now named Zaku, who sniffed in irritation. "It was an order, so we have to do it or we die. Simple as that." Zaku shuddered. Dosu was so nonchalant about things like this…

"Dosu is right Zaku…" came the voice of the black haired kunoichi of their team. Zaku growled.

"Shut it, Kin!" The girl glared and was about to retort when Dosu held out his arm.

"Silence…I hear something." He said and the other two tensed up, wondering if it was their target. Suddenly, Dosu sharply turned his head and grinned under his bandages when he spotted a girl with pink hair of all things, dragging their target to safety. Gesturing to his two team-mates, they moved in.

Sakura was relieved. She had managed to perform basic medical checks on Sasuke and was moving him to a safe location by one of the larger trees of the forest. Suddenly, to her shock and fear, she heard footsteps and, when turning around, her eyes widened.

"Hey there girly, can Sasuke come out and play?" Came the sadistic voice of the one with brown hair. The bandaged guy shook his head at the boy's acting.

"Shut it, Zaku." He said and the boy named Zaku scowled. "You, give Sasuke to us and nobody gets hurt." He warned her menacingly. Sakura backed away frightened and watched as the girl with black hair sneered at her.

"Tch! How pathetic! You call yourself a kunoichi?" She yelled and grabbed Sakura by the hair. "My…look at this beautiful hair, it makes me quite jealous." She said with a wistful smile, which then turned into a vicious sneer. "It's girls like you that give us kunoichi a bad name!"

Dosu then proceeded to order her to wake up Sasuke although it wasn't needed as a dark chakra suddenly filled the area causing the group to look…and see Sasuke standing with an ominous black and purple glow swirling around him and tattoo-like patterns going down his left side. Dosu's eyes widened.

'What? This is Orochimaru-sama's-' His trail of thought was cut off when Sasuke had started to attack, crippling Zaku's arms as he failed to perform his wind based jutsu. Cringing at the scream Zaku made, as his arms were rendered useless, he shrunk under the gaze of those cold red eyes that were directed at him. Thinking quickly, he laid his scroll in front of the Uchiha and retreated with Kin and the injured Zaku. No need to fight a useless battle, their task was complete…

"Not enough…need to get stronger…" Sasuke muttered as his gaze was fixed after the runaway cowardly Oto-nin. He growled and contemplated going after them when a foot collided with his face, slamming him into a tree.

"Yosh! I do not know what has occurred here but you are behaving most unyouthfully, Sasuke-san!" He recognised that annoying voice of that bushy eyebrows kid that kicked his ass…dammit. The boy then got into a taijutsu stance and charged at Sasuke, who smirked and prepared to engage the boy in a battle of fists and kicks.

However, much like a repeat of earlier in the first exam, their attacks were blocked this time by Lee's team-mate, Hyuuga Neji, who frowned.

"While this fool is my team-mate…I will not allow you to bring him harm!" He then proceeded to attack Sasuke with a barrage of hand strikes, rendering him unable to draw chakra and forcing the marks on his body to recede to his neck, where the snake man bit him…

He collapsed into a state of unconsciousness, and Sakura smiled in relief. Then, she wondered. Where was Naruto? She knew he had been off somewhere in the forest, most likely a good distance away…

Said genin was currently hopping through the trees, hoping that his team was competent enough to survive without him. After homing in on their chakra signatures with his All-Seeing Eyes technique, he sped faster as it appeared they were injured. Cursing under his breath, he hoped he could reach them in time.

He had been correct in his assumption as Sasuke was out cold and Sakura was mildly shivering in fear. After throwing the scroll in her lap, getting a look of surprise and slight elation, she helped shift Sasuke onto his shoulder as the group made their way to the tower…

As they arrived, Naruto carefully placed Sasuke on the ground while Sakura cradled him. He decided to kill the wait by looking at around. After waiting, he turned to Sakura.

"Sakura-san…I think we have to open the scrolls here…" He said and the girl blinked before a spark went off in her head and nodded. As Naruto unravelled the Heaven scroll, and Sakura doing the same with Earth, a smokescreen suddenly blocked their vision and from it came a familiar face.

"Woah! you guys actually made it! Good job!" Came the voice of Iruka, who stepped out of the shadows of the smoke. He then looked concerned at Sasuke.

"What happened to Sasuke?" He questioned and Sakura started to wail loudly.

"I-it was horrible, Iruka-sensei! Some freak called Orochimaru bit Sasuke-kun and made him all crazy!" Iruka's face froze into panic at the name she mentioned and proceeded to help Sasuke to the medical wing. If that mark on the Uchiha's neck were an indication, then everything would turn to shit. And fast.

A week later…

The genin were gathered in a large stadium, lined up in their respective teams as they were listening to the Sandaime Hokage give a speech. Many were ignoring this speech in favour of observing their would-be opponents.

Many stood out in Sasuke's eyes as all he saw was a means to an end in his pursuit of power…none would get in his way. Sakura had looked from terrified at the amount of people to concern for Sasuke as he kept gripping his neck in pain. Naruto watched all of this impassively…the foolish girl truly thought that the boy would listen to her? He wasn't even the least bit interested in any of the women including her…perhaps he went the other way? Naruto paled a sickly green colour and moved away from the boy as if he smelt something awful and Mia hid in his red curtain of hair.

Moving from Sasuke, he took note of the others in the room. It seems that all of the Konoha teams had somehow passed, along with the Suna team, Oto team, and finally two Uzu teams. Looking at the last group, he frowned slightly. He knew that there were two teams there when he annihilated the Kiri-nin but they had hidden themselves so well that he couldn't locate them and do the same…oh well, he would remedy that in the exam, where everyone would recognise his love that he would show the world. He smiled and scratched Mia behind her ear, eliciting a satisfied purr.

Apparently, because so many teams passed the second exam, they would have to 'weed out the weak' as it were by holding preliminary matches…what a bother. He then tuned back in to hear the last message from the ill sounding chuunin.

"Now, in order to start these matches, your names have all been entered and some will be selected to compete for their right into the third and final exam. Those who don't get called, consider yourselves lucky…now lets begin!" The man said, with hacking coughs between his words that made it slightly difficult to understand but the message was clear. You win, you're in, You lose, and you go home. Many tensed as they watched the names flicker fast on the black huge screen behind the chuunin when it finally stopped.

Matsu no Nenshou Akuma (Matsu the Burning Devil)

VS

Uzumaki Naruto

Many looked at the two red heads that would be competing against each other. The Konoha-nin looked at one of the now named Uzu-nin. He had short bright red hair and red eyes with tribal patterns on both sides of his face. He wore no shirt, but covering his bare muscular torso was a cross strap holding a huge package on his back. Covering his arms were a pair of light armoured black gloves. His lower half consisted of a black and orange kilt over a pair of black trousers and orange and black boots. 'Matsu' smirked.

"Oh, now this is gonna be so much fun!"

**END OF CHAPTER!**

**Sorry for ending it here but I wanted to write the tournament matches in the next chapter as I have something planned. I hope that I can encourage more people to read this as well as my other fic, Dead Bone Pulse. Anyway, time to move on the Jutsu Corner.**

**Endo's Jutsu Corner**

**Only two here to mention (I am finally glad to use Avatar Macha now after trying to come up with good techniques)**

**Gesshoku no Kyuushuu** (Moonlight of Attraction): Used by Naruto only in Avatar form. A large red moon with a glowing yellow eye appears behind the user and, with its rays, charms a target and brainwashes him or her into attacking their allies. Unranked Genjutsu. (**NOTE: This was based on one of Macha's techniques in the original .Hack games called Suspicious Seduction, but this is a toned down version of that**)

**Kyozetsuhannou** (Rejection): Used by Naruto only in Avatar form. User generates a sphere of pink/purple energy in his palm and thrusts into the heart of the victim, signalising rejection and heartbreak. Unranked Ninjutsu.


End file.
